Ichigo's Soul Center
by OgichiRocks
Summary: After learning about his soul center, Ichigo is forced into the depths of Hell, where he finds something most surprising! Read on and review!
1. Prologue

**Here goes…. I know the name is totally bad…**

Ichigo's Soul Center

PROLOGUE

"Good morning class!" The teacher greeted everybody cheerfully, "I see we have everyone in attendance, except for Ichigo again, and what's this? Rukia too! Ah well, let's begin today's lesson..."

"I wonder where Ichigo and Rukia have been to lately, they've been gone from school for almost a week!" Orihime whispered to Tatsuke.

"I really could care less" She replied back in a bored tone.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in downtown Karakura a battle was going on.<p>

"Ichigo, look out!" Rukia screamed from behind Ichigo as a sharpened claw smacked down where he had been standing only seconds before. Ichigo whirled around in mid-leap and hacked Zangetsu into the arm of the hollow.

"!" the hollow bellowed furiously.

"Ha, that'll teach him!" Ichigo yelled as he swung the final blow on the hollows head and watched it disappear, he then turned to the young spirit it had been chasing and performed a beautiful Konso.

"Wow, you're getting better at this every day." Rukia complimented Ichigo.

"Yea, thanks I guess." Ichigo looked down at the ground, in truth he felt like he could sleep for the rest of his life he was so worn out. They had been running around town fighting off all of the hollows they could for the past ten days. He didn't know how much longer he could keep it up without a break. Especially since Kon had gone missing. He was never going to let Rukia know how tired he was and how much he wished Kon was here to go to school for him.

"Hey, you know Ichigo, I think you need a rest, why don't you go to school tomorrow and let those bruises heal some." Ichigo felt like Rukia had read his mind.

"No, I could never let you go and chase hollows alone! What if an Arrancar shows up!" Ichigo rebuked, annoyed that Rukia thought of him as weak.

"You need your rest, and so do I, so we are both going back to school tomorrow and leave the hollows to the soul reaper in the area." Rukia was relieved to see that Ichigo was looking a little bit more accepting to this than before. "Now come on and let's get some sleep."

Ichigo was asleep before his head even hit the pillow. His dreams were mixed images of hollows and Arrancars trying to kill him, he woke up to a cold sweat having seen a vivid image of Aizen coming at him yelling "I'm almost their!" in a hollow's voice.

"Ichigo! Come down and get some breakfast or you'll be late for school!" Yuzu's sweet voice drifted up the hall to him.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" Came the irritated reply. He would think about this more after breakfast.

**How do you like my first ever post? Please review and give me any suggestions you want!**

**This plot sort of takes place while everybody is waiting for the winter war.**

**Please Review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**This chapter is much longer and way more interesting..**

CHAPTER 1

At school a crowd was gathered around a particular desk, the crowd consisting of Ichigo (who's desk it was), Orihime, Chad, Uryuu, Tatsuke, Rukia, Chizuru, Keigo, Mizuiro, and the new transfer student Renji.

"Guys! Would you give me some room! I've only been gone for a few days!" The spiky orange hair bobbed angrily with every word.

"But, Ichigo, we were so worried about you! You could have checked in on us every once in a while." Orihime's small voice cut through the awkward chatter. "And where is Kon? Doesn't he usually use your body when you're out?"

"Well, I'm sorry, I will try to next time." Ichigo replied. "But could you guys please back up some, I have a crazy headache right now. And we can't find Kon, he disappeared after I kicked him out the window three days ago."

Just then the bell rang and everyone ran back to his or her seats.

"Oh, class I see we have our two no-good students back. What do you two have to say for yourselves?" The teacher aimed her words at Rukia and Ichigo.

"We're sorry Ms. Teacher!" they both replied swiftly as they stood and bowed low besides their desks.

"Alright then, but don't do it again!" She turned to the board and began writing the day's lesson.

The entire day went by achingly slow for Ichigo, what had once been just a slow pounding of a headache was now almost at migraine level. He didn't know what to do and could barely think for most of the day, all he could do was look out the window.

As Rukia walked home with Ichigo she noticed that he was concentrating on the ground a lot more and seemed to be deep in thought. She pulled out her soul pager and began beeping while typing a report. The beeping continued for a while as they walked with ichigo a little farther back than usual.

"Hey, Ichigo, is something the matter?" Rukia questioned looking up from her report when she realized Ichigo was behind her.

"No, it's just a headache, I'll be fine in a day or so." Ichigo answered through pain-gritted teeth. "Could you stop with the beeping though?"

Now Rukia was sure something was wrong, it couldn't be his wounds, he had had far worse before. No, maybe it was just a headache as he said and there was nothing to worry about. Rukia liked the second option better.

At home Ichigo lay on his back and stared at the ceiling, lost in the blurry world of pain, suddenly out of nowhere he felt like he had been stabbed in the arm, he swore violently under his breath trying to keep calm, but the overwhelming pain was so violent that a small whimper escaped. And when he reached over to feel his shoulder, all he felt was hard skin and muscle, no blood. He lay back in bed and stared once more at the ceiling in a daze of shock and confusion. Suddenly a beeping noise could be heard in the closet and Rukia's head appeared from behind the door.

"Sorry Ichigo, this one has a very high spirit pressure, I think we should go check it out. It might be an Arrancar, we should both go. Do you feel up for it?" Rukia wondered if his headache was gone yet.

"Of course, we can't let Aizen believe that we let our guard down. Let's go." Ichigo set a look of determination on his face and tried to ignore the pain in his head and shoulder. As he changed into his soul reaper form though, he felt a warmth on his shoulder, right where the pain had started a few minutes ago, and when he turned his head to look he realized that his shoulder had a deep open stab wound that had not been there before.

"What's that!" Rukia exclaimed as she too saw the bloody wound on his shoulder." How did that get there, I don't remember you getting hurt so bad with that last hollow! Is there something your not telling me Ichigo?"

"What? No! Of course I would tell you if I got hurt like this, it just appeared on there for no reason! I don't know what's going on!"

"Oh, well you had better bandage that quickly so that we can go catch this hollow." Rukia replied.

How could that wound have gotten there without Ichigo even noticing it? Her confusion was interrupted when Ichigo got back from bandaging his wounds carrying a struggling Kon dressed in a very pretty outfit.

"Look who I found trying to sneak out of Yuzu's room!" Ichigo dropped Kon on the bed. "Kon! What wee you thinking not telling us where you were, now get in my body and don't mess anything else up!" Kon blinked and started to reply when he looked up and Ichigo and Rukia were gone through the window already.

They didn't talk for the entire time it took for them to find the hollow, only mulled the events of that few moments in the room over in their minds. As they shunpo-ed through the sky, which was the fastest way to get there, Ichigo was lost in his confused thoughts. Why did my shoulder get cut like that? How is that even possible? Those questions and many more continued to float through his head.

"I've got ya confused all up don't I!" an eerily familiar voice spoke up in Ichigo's mind, it let out a bone shattering laugh before continuing, "You don't know what to think now do ya! Che, you really are stupid Ichigo, the hollow you guys are after is pretty tough you know! I could handle him much better than you can!"

Ichigo's head felt like a million tiny needles were being bored into it from every direction. He shook his head and tried to push the voice away, mentally speaking to it. "I don't need you and I never will! Now get out of my head!"

"No, I will never leave! You can't control me any longer, especially not now that I have found what I've been looking for!" and with that he faded off into the recesses of Ichigo's mind, leaving nothing but more of a headache and causing Ichigo to grasp his head in his hands.

"Ichigo, are you sure you can do this? You look like your having a hard time with that headache of yours." Rukia was concerned; she had never seen Ichigo act this way before. Was it his inner hollow?

"I told you I'm fine!" Ichigo's reply was sharper than he meant it to be and he quickly looked away in shame for yelling at someone he wanted to protect.

Just before Rukia could reply with an equally sharp comment a loud boom echoed from up ahead and a large cloud of smoke plumed into the air. They increased their speed and were soon upon the sight.

"There you are! I've been calling for you for a while now, you guys are slow to react!" the voice was none other than that of Espada number 6 Grimmjow. "Now I finally will get my revenge for you defeating me once. Now I will defeat you!"

"You were causing all of this destruction just to tell us you were here?" Rukia asked.

"Pretty much." Something about the Arrancars arrogant tone made Rukia unsheathe her sword and charge at him. Rukia was just about to swing her sword when Grimmjow surprised her with the speed of his sonído and jabbed her in the stomach before she could even react. Ichigo was greatly angered by this turn of events and rushed into the battle as Rukia's limp body fell to the ground below. The sound of swords clashing filled the sky as each battled the other blocking and parrying trying to get in a solid blow. Suddenly they flew away from each other, hovering high above Karakura town. Ichigo's breathing was heavy and labored, while Grimmjow was barely sweating. Suddenly Ichigo could feel his inner hollow trying once again to surface. He pushed it back with all of his spirit energy, but soon he realized that he was losing.

"Here I come!" Grimmjow leaped into the air and powered straight for Ichigo. But Ichigo did not move, he only stared straight into the eyes of Grimmjow and raised his sword yelling out "Bankai!"

Grimmjow barely had any time to react before he was nearly blown away by the sudden rise in Ichigo's spirit energy, the pressure only continued to rise as Ichigo's irises began to fade into a ghostly yellow and his eyes turned a deadly endless black. But suddenly he shook his head and that was gone, his eyes returned to their normal light brown and became white once more. Grimmjow's eyes narrowed in hatred and he charged once more.

Rukia hit the pavement with a sickening thud and did not move again, her spiritual pressure was down to almost nothing and she was barely breathing.

At a nearby sowing shop Uryuu was purchasing some thread.

Chad was at a park taking a walk.

Orihime was brewing some tea.

Renji was napping.

At the exact same moment each of them widened or opened their eyes and began to make their own way towards Ichigo's distressed spirit energy and Rukia's almost nonexistent one. They could also sense that an Arrancar was battling with Ichigo, and possibly had the upper hand.

Suddenly the sunlight was blocked out and replaced with a glowing ball of energy. Ichigo looked up in time to see it head straight for him and he barely blocked it with his sword but was sent streaming to the ground creating a crater around him.

"Had enough yet Ichigo? I could take over whenever you want. King." the mocking voice filled Ichigo's mind making him unable to move or even think. "Maybe I will just take over, I'm closer than ever before now!"

The wound in his shoulder along with a new one in his side was welling up with blood, Ichigo was becoming dizzy and his body was refusing to move. How could this be? He thought, I haven't even been fighting that long!

"Hmph, if you can't get up or show me your full power then maybe I can force ya to!" Grimmjow spat and then he headed over to Rukia who still lay unconscious on the ground a few meters away. "What if I just kill her, is that enough to make you use your full power?" he lifted Rukia by her neck and held her above the ground, at that moment she woke up and tried to look around, but feeling the pull on her neck soon fell into choking coughing spasms.

"Ack...let...go...of me!" she choked out some words before becoming quiet with labored breathing.

"No! Rukia, grr, you bastard! How could... you do this! Fight me, put her DOWN!" Ichigo yelled, his fury causing his spiritual pressure to once again rise dramatically as he stood up. "Put her down and fight me you coward!"

Grimmjow dropped Rukia and took a step towards Ichigo, his hand went to his sword and he drew the long blade, Ichigo lifted Zangetsu from where it had dropped. Putting his hand to his face, Ichigo made a clawing pulling motion and his mask formed within a cloud of black and red smoke.

"Hahahahahaha, now you've made a fatal mistake Ichigo!" the voice of his hollow spoke up. "Putting on that mask only gives me an easier way to get closer, only seconds and you will be consumed." Ichigo tried to take the mask back off but too late realized it was not going to come off.

"Damn it."

"What was that? Are you going to give up? Hahahahahaha!" Grimmjow leaped at Ichigo and quickly spun into a kick. Ichigo deflected it with his sword and tried to counter attack but Grimmjow was already out of reach. As they came at each other for the next attack Ichigo suddenly dropped to his knees and skidded to a stop, Grimmjow looked at that as an opening and skidded to a halt to charge up his best cero.

"No, stop..." Ichigo began mumbling under his breath, as if talking to someone only he could hear.

"Stop your whining and face my attacks, don't you want to die like a man?" Grimmjow was growing impatient as his cero finally took full charge, he wondered what had happened to Ichigo's determination. It wasn't fun when you killed someone without a fight.

Rukia looked up in time to see the cero being released at point blank on top of Ichigo's huddled form. The explosion was so loud that she was forced into a tight huddle to keep away from all of the flying rubble. Suddenly she heard running footsteps and thought that Grimmjow had come to finish her off, but when she looked up it was Orihime, Chad, Uryuu, and a tired and annoyed Renji. But all Rukia could manage to say as Orihime began to heal her was "Ichigo..."

"Rukia will be fine guys, you need to find Ichigo!" Orihime sat still eyes glazed with concern and concentration as she gave the order.

"Right" Chad replied.

"Got it." Uryuu said.

"Whatever, I'm lookin' for Grimmjow!" Renji remained stubborn.

As Uryuu and Chad approached the blackened crater caused by the impact of the cero, they were both thinking the same thought, what if Ichigo was...dead? His spiritual pressure had become impossible to trace at such close range. But they knew in the deepest part of their beings that Ichigo would never lose that easily. Suddenly they heard a menacing hollowfied voice from the opposite edge of the crater.

"When did you weaklings get here? Che, it won't take long for you to die!" Chad and Uryuu both ran forward to see whose voice it was.

"Ichigo…?" Uryuu asked tentatively. "Are you ok?"

The dust cleared and they saw Ichigo trying to prop himself up with Zangetsu. When he looked up though, they saw a horrifying mask with two thick stripes running down either side of his face and horns pointed at them with deadly points. As they looked on in shock, the monster that was Ichigo raised himself up fully and they noticed that his black shihakushô was steadily becoming white. The color spread from his clothes onto his body and his hair paled into a sickly white color.

"Ichigo." Chad stated, in complete shock.

"I'm not Ichigo you fool! When will you people understand that! Here is something you will understand, Ichigo is dead." the hollow Ichigo laughed maniacally before raising the white Tensa Zangetsu level with Chad's face, he then moved it to point to Uryuu. "Hmmm which one to kill first?"

Suddenly the mask on Hollow Ichigo's face chipped and the black eyes widened in surprise. "So I see your still gonna fight, Che, I'll finish you off for good this time!" But before the hollow could do anything the mask had come off entirely and the black eyes were fading into a normal white, his shihakushô was returning to it's original color and Ichigo's trademark orange hair was back to normal.

"Hey guys, sorry about that." Ichigo said before falling unconscious onto his back.

**Thank you people who have survived my horrible prologue and read chapter one!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Sorry it took so long! Please read and Review! **

CHAPTER 2

The group of friends stayed together to discuss what had just happened while Orihime healed Ichigo, but they had barely begun. Talking when Rukia asked where Renji was.

"He told me he was going to look for Grimmjow!" Orihime whispered, barely letting anyone hear her.

"Oh no! That could be a terrible mistake on his part!" Rukia stood up as if to look for him, but neither Renji nor Grimmjow could be seen. "I guess they must have taken the fight elsewhere, I can feel Renji's spiritual pressure somewhere that way." she pointed down the road.

Orihime stood up signaling the completion of the healing. "Ichigo will be fine guys, he was barely wounded at all, in fact he should be waking up any moment now."

"Well when he wakes up we should head over to Urahara's shop and wait for Renji to get back." Uryuu quickly got back to business.

"You're right, that would be the best for us to do and maybe we can ask him about what just happened with Ichigo." Rukia agreed.

"Ya." said Chad.

Soon Ichigo awoke (back in Shikai form) and they began the long walk to Urahara's shop. Once there, Urahara invited them in to some tea while they talked, Jinta and Ururu helped serve the tea and then went about their normal rambunctious cleaning methods near the front of the shop. It was early in the morning now, so everybody at Urahara's shop was awake.

"Now, what is it that you guys wanna talk about?" Kisuke asked after taking a sip of tea. He noticed as he looked around the table that almost everybody was about to fall asleep.

"We, um, well as you probably noticed, um an Arrancar showed up and Ichigo fought it and now Renji is fighting it...umm" Rukia did not want to bring up the little incident right in front of Ichigo. "Umm, can we talk privately Kisuke?"

"Sure little lady, that's no problem, you guys enjoy the tea, we'll be back shortly I assume." He said and waved his fan before getting up and walking to the next room.

As they left Ichigo sensed they would talk about him, he was so ashamed about what had happened, and everybody was looking at him weird. As he was having these thoughts, the headache suddenly came back, along with an intense pain in his stomach and arms. He could barely move because of the intense pain.

"Ichigo, are you O.K.?" Uryuu asked, noting the way Ichigo grit his teeth before answering.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just another headache. What is with these things?" his head was throbbing and he couldn't move his arms anymore they hurt so bad, he also felt like he was about to throw up because of the stabbing feeling in his stomach.

"Guys, I think I'm gonna head home, I need to rest up for tomorrow." he stood up slowly, ignoring the looks of surprise from Orihime and Uryuu.

"You aren't even going to stay to see Renji?" Orihime could feel the tense spirit pressure radiating off of Ichigo as he walked away without responding. The door slammed shut behind him.

In a few moments Rukia walked in and sat down next to Orihime. Kisuke came in a moment later carrying a big old book under his arm.

"What's that?" Chad spoke up.

"This is what I call the History and Complete Study of Souls!" Kisuke held up the book like a child would show a parent what they found. "It basically maps out the different parts of a soul, like spirit pressure and abilities. We're gonna look at the Soul Center, it's basically where all of our power manifests itself, the core of our being. Like on hollows, their hole in their chests are not only where their heart was ripped out, but also where their soul center was taken. The soul center also sometimes makes reserves of energy for emergencies, they can hold unlimited amounts of emergency power! Are you following?"

Everybody looked at Kisuke like he was crazy. "Are we supposed to believe all that! It sounds crazy!" Uryuu shouted. "Who wrote that book anyways?"

"Well... It was written...by a very old man, probably while he was drunk too!" Kisuke's reply did not satisfy Uryuu, but he remained quiet to listen to the rest of the explanation. Rukia began to draw some poorly done diagrams surrounded with bunnies to help Uryuu. "A soul center's shape varies from person to person. Along with how it stores energy reserves." Ururu brought out some little breakfast items and some more tea. "Thank you Ururu. Now we all know that Ichigo has an inner hollow that is constantly fighting with him for control. Well I believe that that hollow may have found his way to Ichigo's soul center! If that is true, if the soul center is entirely destroyed Ichigo will fully hollowfy no matter what." Kisuke finished his little explanation and closed the book with a slam that released a great plume of dust causing him to sneeze all over Uryuu. "Sorry, but you deserved it for doubting me!"

"Eeeeewwww!" Uryuu's cry was equal to the girls' as they leaped away from the snot covered Quincy.

"Wait, so how can we help Ichigo fight his inner hollow?" Chad's question encompassed what everyone had been thinking.

"You can't, see and that's the problem. The only way to keep Ichigo from hollowfying is to let him take care of it himself. But we shouldn't say anything to him about our little talk here okay. That reminds me, where did Ichigo go?" Kisuke fanned himself and took another sip of his tea.

"He said he needed to rest and went off in the direction of his home, but now that I think about it, that's the direction that the Arrancar is in!" Orihime pointed out nonchalantly.

Rukia's head shot up at that. "We must go and help them! That Arrancar was Espada number 6!"

"No."

"Chad is right Rukia, let them solve their own problems, plus, there's still more tea!" Kisuke raised his glass and everyone decided to settle down and wait for the fight to end.

Ichigo's mind was tormented with pain and confusing thoughts, his arms were pulsing now with the constant agony that he could not determine the source of. His stomach had settled somewhat although he still felt woozy. Suddenly Ichigo was engulfed in a hot fury for his inner hollow and began shouting at it.

"You bastard! Why are you causing me so much pain?"

"Hahahahahaha!" the crazy laugh shook itself out in Ichigo's head. "Hey king, I see you finally noticed it was me that was doing this. Or are you not sure, want some proof!"

"No, get out go away and stop hurting me!" Ichigo was stumbling blindly down the street now using all of his strength to grab his throbbing skull.

"Stop yelling at me, I don't like it. Let's see if you like this!" suddenly the pain in his arms and head bloomed and spread throughout his body causing him to collapse onto his side.

"How...how are you doing this?" Ichigo mumbled through gritted teeth in between labored breathing.

"Of course you aren't smart enough to know about this! Hahahahahaha, I found your soul center and now I'm hacking it to pieces! Your soul form is dying; you can barely change into a soul reaper because of that form's injuries! Try! Change into a soul reaper!"

Ichigo rolled onto his back and slowly reached for his substitute soul reaper badge before pressing slowly onto his chest. He burst from his body with an agonizing wrench and went down on his hands and knees panting. It took a few moments to realize that he had hundreds of minor and a few major wounds all over his body, his shihakushô was torn and he was already looking at a large puddle of blood on the ground around him. He reached back for his Zanpacto but collapsed before he could get to it.

Ichigo awoke to blue, he lay on the side of a giant blue skyscraper, and to his left was the familiar sideways sky white clouds on a blue background. As he slowly stood up, he realized that he was no longer injured, and in fact felt quite fine. But when he looked around some more, he saw no one.

"Zangetsu?" no reply... He waited in the same spot for what seemed like hours on end until he finally heard a soft rustling behind him. He turned swiftly and saw Zangetsu walking towards him.

"There you are, I was getting bored. What's up?" Ichigo tried to remain cool and calm but his mind was reeling. What had happened to him in the world of the living? What the hell was a soul center?

"I have come to warn you that your inner hollow has found your soul center and is bent on destroying it to gain power over you."

"Uhh.. What's a soul center?"

"You will soon find out" and with that Zangetsu left, slowly disappearing in mid-air.

No sooner had he left, than Ichigo turned around to see a door that seemed to go into one of the buildings. He walked over and peered down a long set of stairs and into black depths. Suddenly he was pushed from behind and fell down the stairs and into the black depths.

"Finally, now I have ya!" the all too familiar mocking and chilling tone of the hollow's voice greeted Ichigo at the bottom of the steep staircase, the door slammed closed and dissappeared behind him.

"Why do you always have to do this!" Ichigo yelled before charging at the hollow form of him. "Gaaaaaaaaahhhhh!"

"I said now I have ya!" Hollow Ichigo repeated, and put up the index finger of his left hand to the point of Ichigo's sword, stopping him and freezing him in place.

Ichigo couldn't move at all, he froze in complete and utter shock, how could his hollow have gained such incredible strength? Suddenly he was pulled upright by invisible strings on his hands, he looked like a living marionette hanging a few inches above the ground, his arms and legs spread wide and he dropped Zangetsu. "What... What is this? What are you doing to me?" Ichigo screamed.

"I'm going to rip your guts out and finish you off and then, oh, and then I will take over your body! Ahahahahahaha!" the hollow sprang at Ichigo and slashed him across the chest twice to make an X. Ichigo struggled with all of his might. "X marks the spot...where I will stab you!" the hollow's maniacal laughter cut through the air as he ran Tensa Zangetsu up to the hilt in Ichigo's gut. Ichigo spit up blood as it filled his stomach and began to cough violently. He struggled harder and managed to get one hand free and drop to the floor, into a slippery puddle of blood.

"Let me...fight...you...coward!" Ichigo could barely say those few words as his vision dimmed and became blurry. With his last amount of willpower he tried to look around at where he was and noticed a huge glowing orb not far away surrounded by what looked like sparkling balloons tied to its base. Energy pulsed from it and finally Ichigo knew what a soul center was. He noticed then that the hollow was standing right next to it and seemed to be absorbing it's power by inhaling the contents of one balloon. And even as he noticed this Ichigo realized that he was nothing compared to the power the hollow now possessed.

"No, damn it! I can't let it end this way, why is this happening to me, how can I get out of this!" he spat blood out of his mouth and struggled to stand, raising his sword in a final attempt to win. But the white sword ripped through his shoulder quickly impaling him and sticking him to the wall. Thick streams of blood slithered down the wall and puddle at his feet. His breath seemed to fog the air in front of him. _No. I…Can't move…help..I need help…Zangetsu….Zangetsu, Help me! _His last thoughts scattered as unconsciousness seeped in and took over.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Orihime felt it first; Ichigo's spirit pressure suddenly dimmed and then went out entirely. Everyone rushed to where it had last been felt; Yoruichi appeared as they neared the destination she shared a silent knowing glance with Kisuke. They moved as fast as they could to find Ichigo in time. Finally they turned a corner and saw it, first his empty body lying on it's back, and then his soul, the black shihakushô ripped and torn all over and the puddle of blood welling underneath the beaten face down body of Ichigo Kurosaki.

Rukia ran up and rolled him over onto his back, his face was so mutilated it was almost unrecognizable except for the shock of orange hair that shone through the blood.

"Who or what could have done this!" Rukia managed to say.

"I am afraid that that is what happens when someone's soul center is tampered with. This must be the work of Ichigo's inner hollow." Kisuke stood looking at Ichigo with a disappointed look on his face. "Does he have a pulse?"

They all waited in tense silence as Rukia checked. Ba-bump...ba-bump. "Yes, but barely. Orihime, can you heal him?"

"Of course!" came the reply as Orihime knelt down next to Ichigo and began healing him. "Hmmmm."

"What? What is it?" Uryuu had heard the small sigh escape Orihime.

"Oh, umm, well it's just, I can sense some kind of wound that is embedded deep within his mind and soul, it...it keeps changing and it feels very powerful."

"Can you heal it?" all three friends asked at the same time.

"Don't." Yoruichi spoke up. "That is Ichigo in his inner world and the wound is his inner hollow. If you heal them, it may seal him in forever, for now just heal his physical wounds and let's hope that he soon defeats that monster. By the way, isn't anyone worried about Renji?"

"I'll go get 'im, no worries!" Kisuke ran off with a powerful flash step.

Rukia realized how late in the morning it was by then and ordered Chad and Uryuu to go to school, and Orihime too once she had finished with Ichigo. Rukia and Yoruichi carried both Ichigo's physical and spiritual body back to Urahara's shop and laid him on a mat in the extra room. They didn't have too much trouble even though Ichigo was pretty heavy, so they had some more tea while they waited for Kisuke and Renji to get back. They didn't have to wait long though because soon a stumbling Urahara burst through the door and collapsed on the floor under and unconscious Renji Abarai. This left Rukia and Yoruichi another body to lift as they moved Renji next to Ichigo and put Urahara back in his room. Soon they were both too exhausted to move and lay down in the other extra room and fell asleep.

The morning of the next day found Ichigo still unconscious, Renji wanting revenge on the escaped Grimmjow, Urahara perfectly fine, and Rukia and Yoruichi totally sore from the previous night.

"Looks like no school again today." Rukia commented while checking her soul pager.

"No, you should go to school, if only to tell Chad, Uryuu, and Orihime that everyone is alright. Plus, don't you trust me to take care of you friends!" Kisuke made a puppy-dog-eyes face at Rukia and she finally consented to go, but only on the condition that they would contact her if anything were to happen. She quickly ran home and returned with Kon so that Ichigo wouldn't go missing so much either.

Meanwhile in Ichigo's inner world...

"Zangetsu!" Ichigo's cry rang out through his inner world and he thought of everything he had been through, only for it to end in this inhumane way. Why did it have to happen like this, being slashed and stabbed by ones evil counterpart? No, he couldn't let it end this way, but, what could he do to stop it, there was no way out that he could see! The darkness of death was slowly coming upon him; he could not stay awake much longer.

"Ahaaaahaaahahahaahaha! You are so pathetic little Ichigo! Watch as I devour the power of your soul center and then I will kill you!" the hollow screeched at the top of it's lungs as it hacked at Ichigo's body over and over again, tearing flesh from bone and stabbing at his abdomen, but always avoiding a fatal hit. "Now I will let you watch as I kill your friends!" the hollow reared back and disappeared. "That is, unless you die before I can kill them!"

"Hey! Kisuke! Yoruichi! Someone, you might want to see this!" Renji's startled yell brought the owner of the shop and his good friend, along with Jinta, Ururu, and Tessai running.

"What is...oh" Kisuke quickly helped Renji up and they moved away from Ichigo's writhing body. Kisuke wondered, had Ichigo finally lost control over his hollow?

They all looked on in shocked silence as Ichigo's body clawed at the ground and rolled onto its stomach. He began to make a strange garbled hissing noise that soon turned into a vicious laugh. Then Ichigo raised his head and Tessai fainted, because the look in Ichigo's blackening eyes was one of pure insanity. His irises began to fade into a golden yellow and black reitsu surrounded his body. White tidbits began to form into a mask on his face as his shihakushô began fading to a deadly white, his skin took on a ghostly pale appearance and his hair became white also. The mask was almost fully formed as Ichigo stood up and faced the group of characters by the door.

"Hahahahahahahahah!" the sickening laugh pierced their eardrums. "This power feels great! I feel like killing something, watch Ichigo as I kill your friends!"

"Who are you? Where is the real Ichigo?" Yoruichi demanded.

"You finally understand that I'm not Ichigo, but I do not have a name, nobody has ever bothered to give me one!" his scathing reply came quick and sharp as he took a step forward.

"Well then, what do you want us to call you?"

"My name... my name is Ogichi!" he let out another piercing laugh and reached for Zangetsu. But Zangetsu wasn't there.

"I have your sword over here!" Kisuke playfully held out the long cleaver-like blade. Ogichi flash stepped forward and grabbed for the hilt, but Kisuke turned enough that Ogichi flew right past him. But Ogichi was faster and stuck out a hand that jabbed Kisuke deep in the gut as he flew past. Then, pulling his hand back and skidding around, Ogichi grabbed the blade from Kisuke's hand.

"Not fast enough!" Ogichi whirled around and sliced at Kisuke to finish him but Yoruichi intercepted him and block the blade with a small dagger. But Ogichi seemed unfazed and immediately used one hand to jab her in the gut also. As she doubled over Ogichi gave her a violent kick that sent her flying out of the roof and into the front of the shop.

"Ha ha. Now do you see my power Ichigo Kurosaki!" Ogichi headed towards Jinta and Ururu giggling as black getsuga formed on the blade in front of him.

"Hey, l-leave us alone, we haven't done anything! Run Ururu!" they both turn to run but they are too late.

"Getsuga-Tenshou!" The black fire is released and both Ururu and Jinta are hit full in the back and are tossed across the wreckage of the room where they hit the cement wall and fell to the ground unconscious. "That was too easy! Ichigo, you got some weak friends here! Hahahahahaha!"

"Not so fast, Ogichi!" Ogichi turned around to find Kisuke standing with sword drawn and one hand over his stomach to staunch the bleeding. "You can't get past me that easily, I just let my guard down!"

Ogichi ran at Kisuke and they clashed metal on metal, fighting at ultra high speed they were soon up high in the air above Karakura Town. The sound of swords clashing at high speeds hit the walls of the buildings below. Renji stood on what was left of the roof of Urahara's shop and watched, the only reason he hadn't been caught down there was because he had slipped into the room next door right before Ogichi had seen him. He now stood wondering whether or not to join in.

Just then Orihime and Chad ran up, closely followed by an out of breath Uryuu.

"I told you guys to wait up-" Uryuu stopped, seeing what had happened to the shop. "Renji! What the hell happened here?"

Renji jumped down from the roof and stood facing them. "It, was Ichigo." He quickly told Orihime where a more stable Tessai was slowly patching up Yoruichi, Jinta and Ururu. Then he, Chad And Uryuu went up to the roof to continue trying to keep up with the high-speed battle overhead. "Where's Rukia? Didn't she meet you at school?"

"Ya, she did, she said she would meet up with us later." Uryuu replied. Renji was about to respond when Ogichi screaming far above interrupted them.

"This is way too easy! I will cut you to pieces!" Ogichi charged at Kisuke again. Their blades crashed and Kisuke let out a grunt of pain as he was cut on his shoulder.

They pushed away again and continued until Kisuke sprang away panting hard. "I didn't want to do this, but I see no other option." Kisuke makes a few odd motions with his hands while mumbling a set of words under his breath. Suddenly Ogichi was surrounded by a black box. His screams of surprise and anger are suddenly stopped and the flapping of Kisuke's cloak is all that can be heard as he drops down onto the roof with the others. Yoruichi appeared healed behind him and helped him stand.

"That should hold him for a little while at least."

"What, what was that, I've never seen that kind of binding before." Renji seemed in shock, staring at the box that hovered a few feet away from the roof. "And are you sure it can hold him for very long?"

"Well, he will get out eventually... But it should hold him for at least an hour." Kisuke replied. "I made this up myself when I had some spare time. Unfortunately it is a little too complicated to explain."

Suddenly the box started shaking violently and black reitsu began streaming out of the edges. A bone-shattering cry chilled them all as they watched the box explode open and saw Ogichi in the white tight shihakusho holding a white Tensa Zangetsu. The spiritual pressure was too much for those who were wounded inside the building and Tessai began to move everybody to the underground training ground.

"What! I thought you said it would take him an hour to get out of that thing!" Renji turned on Kisuke.

"Hey, I must have underestimated him!" He held up his hands in an 'I'm sorry' gesture. "Anyway it's too late now, we must all team up to get him at once!"

They slowly began to fan out around Ogichi. Chad and Uryuu stayed on the roof while Kisuke and Yoruichi took the air.

"Trying some kind of strategy on me Huh. Well I can assure you it won't work!" Ogichi sounded confident as he looked at each member of the circle. He slowly spun around until he faced Kisuke, then without warning he let loose an enormous Getsuga Tenshou that surrounded him and exploded outward in a large black and red sphere. Kisuke, Yoruichi, Chad and Uryuu were all hit full on having nowhere to escape to. "Aaahahahahahahahahahah! I knew I would be able to kill all of you!" Ogichi dropped down in front of Yoruichi and stomped on her hand as she tried to use Kido. He felt the bones crunch and crack beneath his foot.

Then he kicked her up into the air before slamming both of his fists into her side and sending her slamming into the ground fifty feet below.

"Ichigo! Do you hear her bones snapping, can you see her obvious distress! How does it make you feel to lose all of your power, horse?" Ogichi roared and then headed over towards Kisuke who tried to grab his sword only to be knocked away like Yoruichi. By now Rukia had shown up and was watching from the shattered remains while she stood in front of a weakened Orihime.

"Oh, Ichigo, I never thought it would come to this." she looked sad as she watched Ogichi pummel Kisuke into the cement.

Ichigo was barely able to breath; it was almost impossible to do what he did next though. His spirit energy flickered stronger as he concentrated all of his remaining power into remaining conscious and standing up to approach his soul center. Finally he made it. He stood up straighter and grabbed for a balloon. He whispered as he struggled to untie the string.

"Help me find the strength to go on, help me..." He stopped to hack and cough up some blood and mucus onto the floor before continuing in a raspy voice, "Help me stop Ogichi and protect my friends!" He put the balloon to hi mouth and suddenly felt strength and power coursing through his body, his wounds began to close up and he felt he could stand again. When he was back at full strength he removed his mouth from the balloon and searched for his sword, which was lying on the ground not too far away. But when he looked back once more at the orb, he noticed just how many balloons Ogichi had taken, there was more than a third missing.

"It will be able to regenerate some, Ichigo. That is all of your power, and you have used it well." Zangetsu spoke from behind Ichigo.

"Zangetsu. Why didn't you come and help me? I could have died you know! And then what?" Ichigo was outraged that Zangetsu only came now instead of helping him earlier. But when he turned around again, Zangetsu walked away and disappeared.

On the outside, Ichigo's body was becoming more and more hollowfied. As Ogichi controlled it the speed at which he moved was increasing. Black and white and red reitsu surrounded Ogichi as the white matter caked his body, forming his hands into claws and a large red tipped tail sprouted, lashing back and breaking more of Urahara's shop.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh. The power! I can feel it flowing in my- urk!" suddenly Ogichi stop talking and began making choking gasping noises. He stumbled around. "What? What is this? I thought you were finished! Oh well, no bother, I'll just have to finish you off once more!" Ogichi's voice was pierced and shook with excited rage as he went back to his inner world to finish the real Ichigo off. As he retreated within himself Ichigo's body completed the full hollowfication and began screaming and attacking everything moving, Rukia stepped in to keep it at bay while she hoped for Ichigo to come out victorious.

Ichigo stood a little ways away from his soul center and waited for his inner hollow to attack. They were both already using Bankai as they leveled their swords at each other. Ogichi was the first to attack as he began spinning the pure white blade on his fingertip and charged at Ichigo, grabbing the hilt and pointing it forwards when he got closer. Ichigo held up his own black sword and blocked the blow. They skidded apart and ran at each other again. But right before they clashed Ichigo flash stepped behind Ogichi and sliced his back open, but not before Ogichi had a swing at Ichigo's shoulder. Now they stood back breathing slowly and assessing their wounds. Blood dripped to the floor as Ichigo grasped his hurt shoulder. Ogichi wasn't even acting hurt although a small puddle of blood began to pool at his feet and stain his pure white Shihakusho.

It was obvious that the next blow would be final. They shifted stances and eyed each other for only a moment before leaping high into the air and clashing in an explosion of back and white. The impact caused both of them to rebound immediately and fall back to the ground. Ichigo stood up and panted as a large gash appeared from his shoulder down to his stomach and blood spurted from the wound, he doubled over and began coughing up blood as it welled into his stomach from the wound. Ogichi stood facing away from Ichigo and a similar slice appeared from his forehead over his eye and down his chest, the wound seeped blood out slowly as Ogichi turned to face Ichigo. But when he tried to walk over to the retching boy, he fell flat on his face with one arm outstretched.

"Looks like, ya finally beat me. Heh, King. Don't worry though. I will be back." his voice faded as he was blown away into black smoke that then disappeared into thin air.

**Thanks to anybody that has read and enjoyed! Please review, I wont post the next chapter until I get at least five reviews! Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 4

**The long, well not so long, awaited…Chapter 4! Please review!**

CHAPTER 4

The hollow charged at Rukia, holding out its claws to attack. She shifted her feet, preparing for a head on collision. But it never happened. When she looked up at the screaming hollow, she saw it stagger away and clutch at its mask. The screams suddenly became Ichigo's grunts of pain as a sudden gash traveled from his shoulder to stomach and another slice cut his opposite shoulder. Suddenly all of the hollow's white body began to crumble away to dust and the mask was chipped and finally fell away. Rukia watched as Ichigo's agonized face appeared from behind the mask and his body and clothing went back to their original colors. He stopped screaming and stood panting and looking around. When he spotted Rukia his face broke into a wary grin, and he took a step towards her, but faltered as if unsure whether it would be safe. His face grew a look of concern.

"Ichigo." Rukia managed, but he was already looking at all of the people around him that were unconscious and bloody. His eyes widened with a look of shock and fear.

"Di-did I...do this?" his voice quivered with disbelieving and when Rukia looked away without answering he knew it was true.

Rukia didn't know what to say. She just stood there and hoped Ichigo would be okay. Orihime appeared from the wreckage and noticed the wounded Ichigo staring at what he had done. Suddenly he seemed to make a decision, he spun on his heel and ran down the street as fast as he could. He staggered in shock and incomprehension at what was back there. How could he live with such guilt? He didn't know how he could ever face Kisuke or Yoruichi or Chad or Uryuu ever again. So he would run away, that was what he would do, make himself disappear where he couldn't hurt anyone ever again.

Ichigo had finally snapped, Rukia thought as she helped Orihime carry everybody into the underground training facility and lay them down on some mats. Jinta and Ururu were feeling better and went to see if the kitchen was undamaged enough to brew some tea. Rukia could feel Ichigo's spiritual pressure slowly getting farther and farther away. Where would he go? She wondered. But a feeling like the snap of a bone sent her mind in another direction, her head shot up and she looked to see if Orihime had felt it too.

A Garganta had been opened and very quickly sealed, leaving behind no trace of ever being there, and also, no trace of Ichigo's spiritual pressure.

"Oh no!" Rukia and Orihime exclaimed at the same time. Just then Jinta brought in some tea closely followed by Ururu holding some toast.

"What's 'oh no' supposed to mean?" Jinta set the tea down. "Is everybody gonna be all right?"

"Yes, of course, it will just take some time, that's all." Orihime looked at Jinta kindly.

"Then you must be 'uh oh'-ing about that Garganta that just opened and seemed to swallow up Ichigo!" Jinta ran over to where Kisuke and Yoruichi were laying unconscious. "Ohhhh, please wake up soon and !"

"They should wake up any minute now, their wounds are almost healed." Orihime focused back on Chad, who's torso was very bloody.

"Ohhhh, I feel like I was in a fight with a crazy hollowfied version of Ichigo." Kisuke finally woke up.

"That's cause you were Kisuke!" Rukia pointed out.

"Oh, yeah now I remember, hey, where did he go?" Kisuke grew more serious.

"Well, after he knocked you against the wall, he was about to attack me when the hollow part just crumbled into dust. Then when Ichigo realized that he had hurt all of you he just snapped and ran away." Rukia explained, a sad look on her face. "And then just a second ago we all felt a gate to Hueco Mundo open and close, taking Ichigo's spirit pressure with it. What could he possibly want there?"

Kisuke's expression had gone from one of concern to one of horror. "That, that can't be! If he has the power to go willingly to Hueco Mundo then he must have-" Kisuke didn't finish but they all knew what he was thinking. Ichigo had finally snapped.

Ichigo ran and ran as fast as he could away from the horrifying sight of his friends crumpled bodies. How could he have let Ogichi do this? Why did he have to be so weak? All of these thoughts just rotated in Ichigo's mind as his feet pounded the pavement. Nobody seemed to be out this late at night, and as Ichigo rounded yet another corner he stopped to catch his breath, reaching out to lean on the wall. Suddenly the wall began to shimmer and slid open like tiles falling, he jumped back and looked in, realizing the opening as a gate to Hueco Mundo, he had seen the Arrancars pass through them before. Just then though, as he was staring into the dark depths of the hole, he realized his only way to protect his friends from any danger was to face and defeat Aizen, or die trying. He ran through the hole and it close up behind him.

He ran and ran into the darkness of the Precipice World, his spiritual pressure creating a path for him. Eventually he slowed down, breathing heavily and took a seat with his legs crossed.

ICHIGO POV:

Why? Why did this have to happen, why can't I just control Ogichi nice and for all! I let him hurt my friends, my loved ones. All of the people that I wanted to protect, ended up being hurt even more! I never wanted this to happen. No, it must be a dream, yeah, a dream. Any minute my obnoxious dad will wake me up and everything will be fine.

NORMAL POV:

He clung to his head and moaned in helplessness. He felt completely overwhelmed and lost. He didn't know what to do now. He kept wishing that it would end, but deep in his soul he knew that this could never end, he would never wake up from this nightmare of reality.

Eventually he fell asleep, his body unconsciously continuing to make the spirit path underneath him so he would not be lost forever.

The small group of wounded teens sat together in the enormous expanse of Kisuke Urahara's underground training ground. A small fire warmed them, because nobody wanted to go upstairs and look once more upon the heap of rubble that was Urahara's shop. Rukia and Yoruichi, along with a helpful but weak Ururu and Jinta, helped heal everybody while Tessai brewed some tea. Everybody was exhausted and in less than an hour the fire began to dim as they fell asleep one by one.

**I need at least five reviews to motivate me to post the next few chapters, I already have up to chapter 10 written….but I need some helpful reviews! Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey! Sorry the last one was so short, I couldn't resist that perfect cliffhanger! Hope you enjoy this one, it's a lot longer. Review!**

CHAPTER 5

"Good Morning class! How was your weekend?"

"Good morning." the class mumbled back to the peppy teacher.

"Wow, today it seems that we are missing a lot of students, let's see, Ichigo, Ms. Rukia, Chad and - oh?" She paused as the door to the classroom burst open and four students rushed in, bowing hastily to their teacher and uttering mumbled apologies as they ran to their seats. "Hmm, looks like we are only missing one person after all. Do any of you miscreants know where Mr. Kurosaki is?"

The four tardy students looked in as many possible directions away from the teacher. Tatsuki wondered where they could have been, and why did they all seem to have bad injuries? Rukia looked the healthiest, while Chad and Uryuu were bandaged all over.

"What's up with you guys?" she leaned over to Orihime, eyeing the bandage on her arm.

"Ummm, we all just... fell down the stairs together!" Orihime scratched the back of her head, hoping Tatsuki would believe her.

Tatsuki just shook her head with a bemused smile on her face, they were all such klutzes.

The lessons that week were uninteresting, the group of friends all walked home together most of the week. Nobody talked about Ichigo, except for a curious Keigo who would not let up on the subject; he constantly walked up close to Mizuiro and bugged him about it. That Thursday Tatsuki began to wonder, Ichigo was never gone from school that long.

"Guys, guys, listen to me!" Tatsuki stood in front of their little group made up of Rukia, Orihime, Keigo, Mizuiro, and Chad and Uryuu who were farther back. "Ok, what's up? I know you guys are hiding something from us. Rukia, you live the closest to Ichigo, you must know where he is! And what was with all of your injuries at the beginning of the week? I think you owe us an explanation."

Rukia didn't know how to respond to this. She looked at Orihime, then Chad, then Uryuu, hoping for one of them to speak up so she didn't mess up.

"Uhh, well.. Ichigo isn't here right now, because..." she hesitated, unable to think up a quick excuse.

"Because he had to be somewhere else!" Orihime spoke up cheerfully.

"That's not much of an answer." Tatsuki crossed her arms and glared at Rukia, trying to get the truth out of her. Rukia wished that Kon had not gone missing again, he was really needed at school, she finally decided that the only way out was to tell the truth.

"Ok, I know that you will want to know the entire truth, and you do deserve to know, but I can only tell you enough to keep you safe." She watched as Tatsuki's eyes lowered and her arms loosened as if in acceptance. "Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado, Uryuu Ishida, and myself, have become involved in events that are beyond our control, Ichigo is at this moment, the center of the current event and has gone missing in another dimension after unintentionally attacking all of us. I wish I could explain in more detail but that would risk getting you caught up in it and possibly getting hurt. We know that Ichigo is capable of handling himself and you don't need to worry. Otherwise, please don't tell anyone else of what I said here, and don't ask anymore questions."

Rukia turned and she and Uryuu, Chad, and Orihime began walking again, leaving Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro standing in shock. Orihime looked back once with an apologizing expression on her face, before following the others. Tatsuki could only stare and let her hands fall to her sides; she hadn't realized that this was such a big deal. She felt kind of bad that she had been so insistent. She remembered the look in Rukia's eyes when she spoke Ichigo's name, she seemed regretful and hurting inside.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Would someone turn off that nasty alarm bell?" The head of research and development in the soul society sat staring at the blinking monitor in front of him. A small group of scientists stood around him, all holding notes and clipboards ready with information. "Hmmm, it seems that a certain person has entered the precipice world between the world of the living and Hueco Mundo."

"Sir, the spiritual pressure it gives off is very similar to Substitute soul reaper Kurosaki Ichigo." Nemu commented in the background.

"Yes, yes, I already knew that! Quit being so obnoxious would you!" The captain began typing crazily on his organ style keyboard; the blaring alarm had finally been switched off. "It seems that he is alone and unmoving, I wonder who could have opened the Dangai..."

"This is an emergency captains meeting, we have some important information regarding substitute soul reaper Kurosaki Ichigo." The head captain banged his staff on the wood floor to call the meeting to order. "Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi has found some valuable info, if you would..." The head captain motioned for Mayuri to speak, and he did so after stepping to the center of the room. He presented a small device that began to project three small spheres into the air.

"As you can see, this projection shows the three worlds, the small one being the world of the living, the medium one the soul society, and the other medium one being Hueco Mundo, in between is what we call the Precipice world, we use this space as a means of transportation from one world to the next. Earlier today I was notified that a Garganta, or gate to Hueco Mundo, was opened in the world of the living and closed almost immediately afterwards, without letting out a single thing. We later found a curious spiritual pressure residing in between the two worlds, it was not moving in either direction. It was none other than the spiritual pressure of substitute soul reaper Kurosaki Ichigo."

Captain Kurotsuchi finished up pocketing the projecting device. All of the captains seemed to be deep in though.

"I also received word of a strange occurrence earlier today in the world of the living, apparently Kurosaki Ichigo has been harboring some unknown hollow powers within himself that he can call out and use as added strength. I was informed that yesterday in the world of the living, the young substitute lost control of the hollow and began attacking and destroying many things. Quite a few of his close friends were nearly killed. When he finally managed to regain control his friends say that he ran off without a word, and they later felt the Garganta swallow him up." The head captain let all of that information sink in, he knew that many of these captains trusted and respected Ichigo for all of his deeds in the past, and that they would have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that Ichigo may now be considered an enemy of the soul society.

"What are you saying, old man?" Kyoraku spoke up, his voice remaining as casual as usual. "Ichigo would never do anything like that on purpose!"

"Yes, I know. But the facts cannot lie, if he does not learn to control that hollow, then we will have to consider him a threat to the soul society and we must take him out. Dismissed." he rapped his cane on the ground once more to end the meeting. All of the captains began to make their way back to their own barracks for the night.

"What are we gonna do? Ichigo's been away for a long time, what do you think he's doing in Hueco Mundo?" Orihime seemed to be upset, as she walked with Rukia, Chad and Uryuu towards Urahara's shop.

"Why don't we just ask him to locate Ichigo when we get there?" Rukia suggested, trying to keep the mood light, while feeling terrible inside.

Construction was amazingly almost complete for the rebuilding of Urahara's candy shop, as they walked up Tessai strode passed carrying a long pole by one end while Ururu held the other end up.

"Wow, I didn't expect you to rebuild so fast!" Rukia said as Kisuke stepped out of the shop holding his fan up to cover his face.

"Yeah, my helpers sure do help out! Why don't you guys come inside, I have something important you might want to know." he disappeared inside and they all followed him into the newly remodeled shop.

"Huh? It looks exactly the same as before!" Uryuu was confused as he looked around the shop. They walked into the usual meeting room and took their seats.

"Yep! I didn't want to confuse anybody and I liked the old style, so, here we are!" he set down his fan and hurried into the back room, bringing out a somewhat large computer with some weird gadgets attached to it.

"What's that?" Orihime asked.

"This, my friend is what I use to track and find people in the three worlds, the world of the living, the soul society, and Hueco Mundo." He began to type on the keyboard and suddenly a bunch of moving red dots lit up the screen. "This is the soul society, the red dots are the souls with higher spirit pressure than usual, so most of them are soul reapers." He began typing again and the screen showed only a few red dots, and then a cluster at the bottom. "This is the world of the living, see that cluster at the bottom of the screen, that's probably us, because almost everybody here has a higher spiritual pressure."

"So, can you look for Ichigo in Hueco Mundo?" Rukia asked, she sounded happier to be able to know where Ichigo was.

"Well, you see, let me tell you the news first. I sent Yoruichi to the soul society to tell them about what happened with Ogichi, and she told me that they had an emergency captains meeting, and have decided that unless Ichigo can control his hollow then they will consider him a threat to the soul society and eliminate him." Kisuke turned away from the shocked faces and began typing again. "I have been looking all over Hueco Mundo, but I can't seem to find Ichigo's spiritual pressure anywhere. I can see Aizen's, and the Arrancars, but no Ichigo."

"What about the precipice world?" Chad finally spoke up.

"I can try to find him, but the sensors there are far harder to judge exact locations from." Kisuke began typing even faster and for a much longer time, often huffing and backspacing quickly. "Boy am I gonna need some tea after this!" He finally stopped and stared at the screen in bewilderment. "Impossible!"

"What? what did you find? Is it Ichigo?" Rukia scooted over behind Kisuke to get a better look, and she saw the screen showed one single unmoving glowing dot. "Huh..."

"That is definitely Ichigo's spiritual pressure. But what in the world could have him stopped in between the two worlds?" Kisuke seemed at a loss for explanations and shook his head disbelievingly while everyone else crowded around to see what he was talking about.

"He doesn't appear to be moving." Rukia stated. Her voice was dull as she came to the realization that he might be stuck forever.

"Is he stuck?" Orihime voiced Rukia's fear.

"No, he is definitely not stuck, otherwise he would be running around looking for the way out. He must have either gotten tired or is somehow unable to move at all." Urahara seemed to no longer be at a loss for words. "The only thing we can do is wait for him to come out."

"Couldn't one of us go in and find him?" Uryuu was already calculating the best way to drag Ichigo out of the fix he had gotten himself into.

"That might be worth a try, who's going?" Kisuke stood up. "It will take about two days for me to set up and open a Garganta, so just rest and train and meet me back here in two days time with everything you think you will need. See ya!" He waved as they all walked away.

"I will go too!" Orihime said hopefully. "He could be injured and need immediate help!"

"Fine. I guess we will all go then, just to make odds even, and in case he turns into a hollow again..." Uryuu trailed off as they all turned in different directions towards their own homes.

**Please Review!**


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

He felt like he was floating, in a dreamlike state, not really thinking about what to do...

"Hey! Get up lazy! What are ya doing in the precipice world!" The mocking voice tormented his head, but it wouldn't go away this time. "See what you are without me! A withered little baby with no purpose! I was doing great in your body, but no, you had to go an ruin all the fun by hiding in the stupid dark precipice world! At least Hueco Mundo is better than this!"

It wouldn't go away, the voice kept complaining and talking in the strange double way that made his head hurt and the backs of his eyes pound.

"No, no, no no no no..." He mumbled in his sleep state, before finally jerking awake and sitting straight up with a final, "GO AWAY!"

Ichigo looked around, trying to ignore the pleading in his head. He was still in the precipice world, but something felt wrong. He looked down at his hands; they were pale and almost white in color. His legs appeared the same way. He thought, am I turning into Ogichi?

"Yes, but more like I'm slowly taking over your body! Hahahahahahahahahahahah!" his laugh echoed on in Ichigo's head.

He stood up and almost immediately fell back down because of a rush of nausea. He clutched his head, but the pain didn't subside. That was when he finally realized what that messed up feeling was about the precipice world.

The rumbling noise echoed in the huge underground chamber beneath Urahara's shop. Kisuke stood atop a massive pillar and Tessai atop another one not more than thirty feet away, they both raised their arms and bright light encompassed them, then shot across the gap in the two pillars forming a large white wall, the wall began to waver and suddenly split horizontally, sliding away like tiles dropping revealing purple-black space behind.

"You must move quickly and when you find Ichigo, just keep running to Hueco Mundo, otherwise you will all be lost forever. If you can't find Ichigo, just keep running, don't risk yourselves!" Kisuke yelled from high above as the four saviors ran and jumped through the portal. "Good luck!"

"Alright, let's go and watch their progress." Kisuke jumped down from the pillar closely followed by Tessai and they went back to the computer that currently had four blinking moving lights going across the screen.

That same screen-shot was being watched also by a curious Kurotsuchi, who currently sat idly in his chair, watching as the blinking lights moved across his enormous screen. "It seems they have sent a rescue party after him. Hmm, curious..."

He had had the feeling that something was off in the precipice world for a while now. He couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was, he stood up and looked around, spinning in a slow circle. Ichigo finally decided that it must have been his imagination and he began to sit down, but as he bent over to sit, his eyes caught onto something. It was a separate path, it branched off from his small platform of spirit energy and went far into the distance, Ichigo turned and saw another going in a different direction. He was very confused and didn't remember which, if any, path was the right one. He stood still and focused. He reached out with his senses along the paths, but he could sense nothing that could tell one from the other.

"Confused, are we! I can tell you which path to take! One leads to Hueco Mundo, and the other...to Hell!" The sinister voice of Ogichi ended his sentence with a crazy laugh that sent chills down Ichigo's spine.

"What do you want? How do you know which path is which?" Ichigo thought in his mind so Ogichi could hear.

"You could call it, a hollows intuition." Ogichi spat back. "But, I'm not gonna tell ya until you promise to switch with me! Hahahahahahahaheehee!"

Ichigo knew that he could never switch with Ogichi again, because it only gave him more power. His only other option was to take a chance and choose a path. He only hoped that the path he chose would be the right one. With that thought he took off running on the path to the right.

"I hope he is ok when we find him." Orihime said from Chads shoulders.

"I just hope he hasn't turned back into a hollow." Uryuu said from the front of the line.

"I wish I could feel his spiritual pressure from here!" Rukia was frustrated that the precipice world cut off nearly all abilities to sense other spiritual pressures. "I keep thinking I feel him, but then it just seems to get farther away, or disappear altogether!"

"I know what you mean, I've been having the same feeling." Uryuu replied, only slightly out of breath. They had been running for about half an hour, it usually took up to two hours to reach Hueco Mundo, so they had a ways to go.

"Hey, Tessai, you might want to take a look at this. I figured out how to see the paths that Uryuu and Ichigo make when they run through the precipice world!" Kisuke sat huddled over the small computer screen constantly typing. "It looks really odd, you can see the red dots for Rukia, Uryuu, Chad, and Orihime, I can also see Ichigo, but..."

Kisuke trailed off as Tessai leaned over his shoulder to peer at the screen. "Hmm."

"The trouble is, I can see the path Uryuu is making, that's the whit line that goes out behind them, but I can't see Ichigo's, and he just started moving in a very odd direction." Kisuke looked back at Tessai and suddenly realized how close together they were, almost nose to nose, and promptly fell out of his chair sideways. "Aaaaahhh!"

"Looks like my studies are leading to a very interesting conclusion, eh, Nemu?" Captain Kurotsuchi still sat at his desk watching the red dots and white lines on the screen.

"Yes Captain." Nemu replied from her position standing ready right behind his chair with her clipboard snug against her chest, she too stared at the screen with a neutral expression.

"It seems that the rescue party was indeed heading for a collision with Kurosaki, but watch this.." He fast-forwarded the screen a few minutes to the present. "Right now, Kurosaki has begun moving, and the rescue group is only heading straight towards Hueco Mundo. And, ooohhhhh! Look Nemu! This is turning out to be extremely interesting!" he pressed some more buttons and the screen zoomed out, showing three orbs of varying sizes. "The two smaller orbs are the living world and Hueco Mundo, which is slightly larger, but that third orb is not the soul society! I believe that it is indeed the embodiment of Hell!"

"How is that possible Master Mayuri? I thought we had never been able to see Hell before." Nemu spoke quietly in the background.

"Yes, well I know that it is not the soul society, and we haven't ever seen Hell before, but maybe it is somehow reacting to that boy Kurosaki's presence..." He trailed off into thought and continued watching the screen, which now showed a red dot moving straight towards the third orb.

**Thanks for reading; next chapter will require some reviews! Thanks for helping me get motivated!**


	8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Ichigo ran for a long time, he eventually began to make out a small speck of light in the distance. It felt strange for him to be walking on a path that was already made and not being made by his own spirit energy. Suddenly he thought he heard something in the far distance and stopped to catch his breath and listen. Ogichi had remained unusually silent. He looked around in a full circle again, taking not of the small speck of light at the end of the path he was following, but also spotting a long white streak in the even farther distance slightly to the left and behind him. He could barely make it out, but it seemed to be moving towards the small platform that he had fallen asleep on. Odd, he thought, who else would need to pass through the precipice world during this time, especially because of the upcoming war. And why are they traveling in that direction, I thought this was the direction to Hueco Mundo. Just as Ichigo realized that he was going on the path perpendicular to Hueco Mundo, the rest of the path behind him began to crumble, forcing him to continue going forward. As a last hope, he began yelling and waving his arms to tell whoever was over there that he needed help, but they didn't seem to notice, and he continued running along the path.

"Did anybody hear that?" Orihime said in a curious voice.

"Hear what? I can only hear our own footsteps and breathing." Uryuu responded without slowing down.

"Wait, I thought I heard it too!" Rukia skidded to a stop and looked around. Uryuu stopped up ahead and Chad, still carrying Orihime, stopped in between them.

"It sounds like someone is calling for help, but I can't hear it anymore, and I couldn't tell which direction it came from." Rukia looked around and spotted a small white speck in the far distance that was moving rapidly away from them. "Look, I think that might be Ichigo!"

Uryuu immediately began to change the direction of the path and they chase after the rapidly disappearing speck.

Ichigo saw the light growing brighter as he approached and he began to slow his pace. As he approached, the light began to turn from a soft yellow-white to a deep red and black, the shape of doors being held together by chains and a giant skeleton appeared before Ichigo and he recognized them as the gates to Hell.

"What! No, this can't be, I never thought you could enter Hell from the precipice world!" Ichigo stopped moving about twenty feet away from the gates, and no sooner had he finished his sentence than a loud groaning noise came from the gates. They began to slowly open, making an extremely loud grating noise, he heard screams and squeals coming from inside. His head began to pound again as the noise came to an excruciating climax and he tried to block out the noise by covering his ears with his hands, but to no avail. Just when he thought that he couldn't stand it any longer a final bang rang out and silence engulfed the area once more. He slowly lifted his head and watched as a figure appeared, silhouetted by the light coming out of the gates. Flames seemed to leap up behind the figure as he stepped onto the path and strode closer to Ichigo.

"Who are you?" Ichigo questioned, cautiously taking a step back, only to find the end of the path crumble beneath him.

"I, who am I, you ask!" The figure was still silhouetted as it responded, though now it was clearly a male. It appeared to have spiky hair and seemed to be wearing a shihakushô and holding a sword.

"I can't see you from here." Ichigo squinted to see throughout the flames. Then the figure motioned with his hand and the flames dimmed, letting Ichigo have a good look at the creature before the flames flared up and removed him from sight.

Ichigo's eyes widened in shock, the figure standing before him was tall and skinny, wearing a deep black shihakushô and a red cape similar to that which a captain would wear, he had an arrancar mask similar to Ichigo's but larger and there were many more horns sticking out, along with some purple stripes, sitting atop his head like a hat. The sword he carried was extremely long and made of the deepest black steel it did not reflect any light, it only seemed to suck in all of the light, the guard was hard and square, with little flame accents, and the hilt was metal with a skeletal jaw at the end that clung to a chain attached to the mans waist. His skin was white, almost sickly and his face showed no sign of showing any emotion.

Ichigo found it almost impossible to look away from the man; in fact, he couldn't even move his body.

"Wh-who are you?" Ichigo managed to stutter; his whole body seemed to be shaking for some reason.

"I, am your worst nightmare. I rule Hell and I am building an army to finally take my revenge on the soul society for banishing me here. You are going to join my army as it's strongest member." The man pointed at Ichigo and Ichigo found himself walking slowly towards the outstretched hand. He tried to pull back, to resist the force that made his body move against his will. Suddenly he heard Ogichi.

"Hey, king, what are you doing, you know that if you go in there you won't be able to get back out. It wouldn't be fun for me to not have anybody that's close to you to play with when I take over again! Come on, stop walking forward." Ogichi sounded whiney and upset. Ichigo mentally told him to 'Shut up, I can't stop moving because of some weird force, stop complaining so much, your making it hard to concentrate!' and his body continued to get closer and closer to the gates of Hell.

"Stop! I don't want to go to Hell; I won't join your army! How are you making my body move!" Ichigo forced the words out through gritted teeth, he was using all of his strength to resist, but to no avail. Suddenly a great wind whipped up and began to pull Ichigo in even faster, his legs just about lifting off the ground and the vortex spun him around until he was facing back the way he came. What he saw made him widen his eyes in shock and surprise; it was Uryuu, closely followed by Chad, Orihime, and Rukia. They all began running faster at the sight of Ichigo being swept into the gates of Hell, Uryuu pulled out his bow and tried to take aim at the man behind Ichigo, but his bow suddenly became unstable and shut down, Orihime's powers couldn't get past an invisible barrier and neither could Rukia's Hado.

"No! Stay back; don't get caught in the vortex! It will only pull you in too!" Ichigo's voice was constricted and he seemed to be in pain as he watched his friends disappear behind the closing gates, the same noise could be heard as when they opened, but Ichigo did not hear it this time, as he was falling head first down what appeared to be a very deep chasm surrounded by flames. The last thing he heard before the gates shut was Rukia screaming "ICHIGOOOOO!"

**Sorry for the long wait, I haven't gotten nearly as much reviews as I would like…. Please review and I will update soon!**

**Also, I would like some suggestions for a funny one-shot including Ichigo and some pranks…**


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

The group of four friends stood outside of the closed gates, no hope of ever opening them again, they felt totally defeated. It seemed impossible that Ichigo would ever survive long enough to get out. And who had been that guy standing behind him?

Soon they realized that even though time moved differently in the precipice world than it did in the world of the living and Hueco Mundo, their time limit was almost up, it seemed every fifteen minutes in the precipice world was two minutes in the living world, so they had to hurry.

"Oh, it seems that young Ichigo Kurosaki has fallen into the hands of Kanzin, the exile was supposed to live in Hell for eternity because of what he did." Kisuke explained to the group sitting around the table in the usual meeting room, it had taken a full day, but everyone had managed to regroup and come back from Hueco Mundo without too much hassle. Now they sat in a group once more around the table at Urahara's shop, hoping that Kisuke would have an answer. Rukia had described the strange figure they had seen pull Ichigo in.

"Kanzin? Who's he?" Uryuu always got right to the point.

"Oh, uuhh, well, nobody knows much about him, just that he was banished to Hell many thousands of years ago for doing something really bad to the soul society and the world of the living. Even I don't actually know what he did. And I'm not sure who would other than the Head captain himself." Urahara cleared his throat and sipped some of his tea. Ururu brought in some snacks for them to eat while they talked.

"Let this emergency captains meeting commence! I believe Captain Kurotsuchi should begin." The head captain spoke to the rows of captains in front of him.

"Hmph, earlier this week I received notification of strange behavior coming from the substitute soul reaper Kurosaki Ichigo. I began to monitor his progress in the precipice world. At first he remained still, then he began to move again, as if following a path instead of creating one. When I looked at the direction he was moving in, I realized he was running straight towards an unknown world."

"What is that supposed to mean, I thought the young substitute was on the path to Hueco Mundo!" Captain Ukitake spoke out of turn, looking slightly distressed.

"Yes, well, it seems inevitable. A human rescue party was sent for him made of Rukia Kuchiki, Yasotora Sado, Orihime Inoue, and Uryuu Ishida the Quincy. They arrived at the entrance to the unknown world right as Kurosaki was entering it, they did not follow. Then, about an hour later, that entire unknown world disappeared from my map! I can assure you this is no technical error!" The captain wrung his hands when he spoke of the disappearing world.

"Well, do you have any idea what was in that world?" Captain Kyoraku seemed less optimistic.

"Hell." the answer came from the head captain himself, and it was met by gasps and muttered disbeliefs.

"So, do we get to enter Hell now?" Captain Zarachi looked excited at the prospect of fighting the unknown enemies that could lie within.

"No, I already told you that the world disappeared from my monitoring system almost immediately after Kurosaki entered!" The impatient scientist spoke irritatedly to the large barbarian.

"I am afraid that this is grave news. If Kurosaki does not have control of his hollow, and it is released when he is in Hell, he will lose control of it and he could become an even bigger threat." Yamamoto called everyone back to attention with his loud commanding voice.

"But how are we going to even get in Hell? I thought we didn't even know where it was until recently!" Captain Hitsugaya rubbed his chin in thought.

"We can follow the path that substitute soul reaper Ichigo Kurosaki left, it still hasn't disintegrated yet, but it will soon if we don't act quickly." Captain Kurotsuchi said.

"Then it is decided! We will send a search team to find and enter Hell to retrieve Kurosaki Ichigo. I would like Captains Hitsugaya, Kuchiki, Zarachi, and Captain Kurotsuchi, along with your lieutenants and anyone you deem necessary for the mission. You are dismissed, the captains that will be on the mission, please meet at the Senkaimon in a few hours." Head captain Yamamoto banged his staff and the group of captains began to leave at their own pace.

Ichigo could only think about what was going on. His body was limp and he didn't feel the need to move. It felt like he was slowly drifting downwards, though he couldn't remember how to open his eyes, or do much of anything. Suddenly he remembered his friends staring at him through the closing gates, his eyes shot open and he jerked his body around to get his bearings. He was indeed falling, slowly though, as if through thick air. When he looked around him he almost screamed, there were hideous monsters that clung to red rocky cliffs all around him. The creatures seemed to be somewhat human in shape, but their limbs were horribly disfigured and blood and puss oozed out of ghastly scars. Ichigo felt repulsed by the sight of so many suffering creatures, their screams puncturing his ears. He wanted to get out and never look back.

"You finally woke up, a little sooner than expected I must say. We will soon reach my lair and I will introduce you to my army!" The figure appeared standing in the air next to Ichigo.

"What's your name? Why are we falling?" Ichigo quickly closed his mouth as he accidentally inhaled the putrid air. It smelled of death and decay.

"My name is Kanzin. I am the ruler of Hell! All creatures bow before me!" He answered before disappearing.

Suddenly Ichigo slammed into a hard surface, the breath was knocked out of him and it took him a few moments to sit up and look at what he had hit. It appeared to be a large crater, the bases of the cliffs rose up around him, but they were strangely absent of any life, or any death for that matter. Ichigo slowly stood up, using Zangetsu as a cane to hold onto. He noticed a cave at the base of one cliff; some odd glow seemed to come from within. He walked over to the entrance to the cave and peered inside, he couldn't see far enough to get a grasp on what was inside, so he stepped farther into the cave and began walking quietly towards the light. He rounded a corner and found himself on a balcony two stories high in a huge cavern filled with hollows and other grotesque monsters. They were all facing towards a stage in the center and seemed to be cheering for something.

"My great army! The time is almost upon us! We will soon have a new member in our ranks, one that is ultimately powerful! He will be our key into the soul society! And once there, we will exact our revenge on those evil soul reapers that banished us to eternal suffering!" It was Kanzin, he stood with his arms raised on the stage, two body guards flanking his back, he spoke into an odd looking microphone to the crowd. The crowd began to cheer and roar, making the walls and ceiling shake. Ichigo covered his ears, knowing that Kanzin was talking about him, he needed to get out, find a way to open the gates and escape. He turned and began to run for the exit from the cave, but he stopped suddenly when Kanzin appeared before him. Ichigo turned to run back the way he came, but was stopped and grabbed roughly by the two bodyguards he had seen before. He didn't even have time to draw Zangetsu before being knocked unconscious and dragged away.

When Ichigo woke up, his arms and legs were bound to chains on a rough cave wall a few inches above the ground. Wires and tubes were attached to his chest and arms, and he realized that he was only wearing the pants of his shihakushô. His wrists and ankles hurt because of the metal restraints. The room before him was filled with machines and weird gizmos that littered the floor along with a few tables. Nobody seemed to be there. He pulled at the chains, trying to detach them from the wall, or slip his hands through the cuff, to no avail.

"Hey! Kanzin, or whoever you are, let me go!" He yelled.

"I'm right here you know." Kanzin appeared from the shadows behind a large cabinet full of glass jars and beakers. "I needed to make sure you were conscious to hear what I am going to do to you. Hehe. I'm going to let your hollow take control for a little bit, and I will add you to my army. I won't let you regain control though, you see this drug?" He held up one of the beakers filled with a purple-ish gray liquid. "This liquid will cause your hollow to gain enough strength to take over your mind for long periods of time, rendering you bound in your inner world!" He picked up a needle and filled it to the brim with the liquid, before slowly injecting it into Ichigo's neck. Ichigo tried to struggle and jerk away from the needle, but Kanzin had a vice-like grip that wouldn't be budged.

"Oooohhh, this feels good! I want more of this, hehehehe, Ichigo ya poor kid. I thought ya would be able to hold out longer, but oh well. More time for me to have some fun!" Ogichi screamed in Ichigo's head.

"Aaaaahhhhh, no! Stop, please, go away! I won't let you take over..." Ichigo arched his back and struggled with his bonds, his eyes went wide and he began to release as much spiritual pressure as possible, trying to break his bonds, never accepting his inevitable fate. But after only a few seconds his body went limp and he let his head drop facing the floor. His breathing was short and ragged and his fingers twitched and clenched. Suddenly his body was engulfed entirely in black and red Getsuga, he screamed and began writhing around, nearly cracking his skull on the wall behind him. Until finally a huge explosion forced Kanzin to back up and turn away. The screaming turned into a double voice, it began to laugh maniacally as it stomped out of the rubble. Ogichi had returned.

* * *

><p><strong>Hello Readers! I hope everybody is enjoying my story! PleasePleasePlease review! It really motivates me, and I will not take any criticisms offensively. Thanks and sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out...<strong>


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey all you awesome subscribers! I'm really sorry for the extremely long wait! This chapter is going to try to cover everybody at once, so lots of scene changes XD I hope you can keep up with it! If anything bothers you, or a plot hole comes up, please tell me and I will be sure and try to fix it!**

**P.S. I still do not own bleach…sadness.**

Tessai and Kisuke once again stood on the top of two parallel pillars, light streaming off their bodies and creating a shimmering wall, the wall parted like sliding tiles and revealed the purple-black light of the precipice world.

The small group below them looked determined as they let Uryuu, the one with the most control over his spiritual pressure, go through first to set up the path before continuing through themselves. Soon, it was just Rukia who stood in front of the gate. She looked up at Kisuke with an unreadable expression before jumping through the portal.

"So where are we supposed to head?" Rukia was stilled confused about their direction.

"Mr. Urahara said that we should continue straight until we reach something, and then we have to figure out how to open it." Uryuu replied from the front of the line.

Rukia let out a small-frustrated sigh, and they all continued running. She hoped that the squad sent from Soul Society would be close behind them.

Captains Hitsugaya, Kuchiki, Zaraki, and Kurotsuchi along with their lieutenants Renji Abarai, Rangiku Matsumoto, Nemu Kurotsuchi, and Yachiru Kusajishi, and two others Ikkaku Madarame, and Yumichika Ayasegawa, all stood in front of the senkaimon where the head captain was sending them off. They stepped through the gates in single file and the large doors shut slowly behind them.

"Old man, do you think they will survive?" Captain Kyoraku had taken a break from napping to watch everybody leave.

"I am quite certain that they will make it back, it is mainly the question of will they complete their mission." The bearded leader replied solemnly, looking off into the distance where the sun was beginning to rise.

"Well, better get back to nap-I mean working!" The man in the flowered clothing ambled off towards his own barracks, enjoying the cool spring breeze that fluttered his kimono-like apparel.

It had been half an hour since they had entered the precipice world using Kisuke's homemade senkaimon. Uryuu was still in the lead, and they had begun to run towards a small white light that seemed to be very far away. Rukia looked around and noticed another small white line to their right; it seemed to be going towards the white dot also. She supposed it was the search party sent from the soul society to help them, and told the others her thoughts.

"Well that would make sense, because I think that is the direction of the soul society." Uryuu thought aloud.

"Oooh, I wonder who got chosen, maybe it will be Yachiru! Or even Rangiku! She said she would help make dinner with me next time we met!" Orihime contemplated the many possibilities that she could make for their next meal from her position on Chad's back. Everybody else just rolled their eyes and ignored her.

Steam hissed around the dark figure. The air itself seemed to shiver in anticipation. Fog dimmed the light that was a shade of deep red. The ground was burned and free of any vegetation. Tall pillars rose off in one direction while a lake of molten lava curled off in the other. A dark trail of corpses ran around in a long winding path, and a shroud of darkness surrounded a still figure near the lake. The figure was breathing slowly, making an odd hissing gurgling noise. Splatters of blood fell around Ogichi, what little bit of consciousness he had was now withered away because of the odd liquid Kanzin had given him. Now he was just like any normal hollow, out for food and power.

Ichigo lay on his back once again; he felt that he lay on his back way too much nowadays. He sat up, opening his eyes and rubbing a dull ache out of the back of his head. When he looked around though, he saw his usual inner world, except this time, submerged in water. Quickly, he spun around and tried to right himself in the upside-down world. He turned and saw a dark figure approaching him in the distance. His mind was overwhelmed by a strange sense of dejavu, as the creature revealed itself to be none other than Zangetsu.

"Z-Zangetsu?" Bubbles flowed out of Ichigo's mouth, and his voice sounded strange and muted.

"Yes?" came the also muted reply.

"Ummm... Why is my inner world underwater?"

"Because you have lost all control after that drug was administered to you. I do not like this, it is worse than the rain." Zangetsu was holding the staff that he usually stood so stoically on in his hand.

"How can I stop it though? The drug won't let me back out!" Ichigo began to panic, he felt suffocated in the water, and he had no idea what was going on in the real world.

"The only way to get back seems to be letting the drug wear off. Although that could take a while."

Ichigo stopped panicking as he listened to the calm voice of his sword. He could think of something, maybe just willpower would do it? He let himself drift down onto a building and sat down in a meditative pose. Concentrating all of his energy into his mind, he grit his teeth and began to force control away from Ogichi.

Meanwhile, both the living world and soul society rescue teams had met up and were now at the gates of Hell. The silence was broken as Kenpachi declared he was bored and asked if they could open the doors now.

"Alright, I suppose so, since you're so impatient, why don't you do it yourself?" Captain Kurotsuchi replied, the other captains nodded in agreement and watched as Kenpachi slid his fingers in the small crack between the two doors and pulled. They could clearly see the straining muscles as the ultra strong captain pulled with all his might. Suddenly the doors banged open, knocking everyone that was close flying back, and sending Kenpachi forward onto his face.

"I thought I heard you trying to enter my domain, so I thought I would greet you first. My name is Kanzin, and I will let you watch as your fellow shinigami is killed." Kanzin stepped back.

"Who do you think you-"! Renji's enraged shout was cut off as the entire rescue party was forced by an invisible hand into the depths of Hell, exactly the same way Ichigo had gone.

"Aaaaaaaauuuuuuggggghhhhhh!" All of their voices collected into one large scream, resounding from the columns and enraging the beasts that were scattered around. Yachiru clung desperately to Kenpachi as they all fell into one big heap on the ground.

"Oh dear, I seem to have chipped my newly manicured nail." Yumichika's distraught voice came from beside the heap of bodies.

"So your saying that you're worried about a broken nail when we just fell three miles into Hell!" Renji had recovered quickly from the top of the pile and was now facing Yumichika with a menacing glare.

The rest of the pile was sorted out soon, and nobody seemed to be hurt, although they were now sporting a flat Kenpachi as they regrouped.

"Is that a hollow?" Orihime was concentrating on a looming figure to their left. "I don't see any mask..."

"Look out! That's a Hell beast! They dwell in the depths of hell and punish the sinners!" The crazy scientist looked around at the surprised faces. "What, I did a lot more research than any of you!"

"Whatever, come on everybody, we need to sense for Ichigo's spirit pressure in the surrounding area, we'll break up into groups of two." Captain Hitsugaya took charge and everybody split up and began to shunpo away, but not after they had successfully beat the weak hell beast.

Bright blue reitsu poured out of Ichigo's meditating form, sending wave after wave of willpower in the direction of Ogichi. On the outside, Ogichi let out a terrible cry, and doubled over as if in pain. It stood there, immobile for a few moments, then shook all over and righted itself as if nothing had happened.

"What happened, I had the control in my grasp, but something just ripped it too far away!" Ichigo yelled, slamming his fist hard into the side of a building. "I can't believe this! Why did this have to happen right now!"

A somewhat worried look came over Zangetsu's usually neutral face. Ichigo never acted so out of character, at least not without the right provocation. This time, he had just messed up on his first try at something new. Why had he already given up instead of trying again? Had the drug done something to Ichigo too?

The sky was dark as Rukia and Renji wandered around, searching desperately for any sign of Ichigo's reitsu. Suddenly, Rukia felt a slight presence far away that felt like Ichigo's, but different, something was wrong.

"Renji-"

"Yeah, I feel it, must be Ichigo's, and we're the closest so we should go check it out first." Renji looked off in the direction the presence was coming from as Rukia nodded in agreement.

As they approached the presence, it felt more and more like Ichigo, although something was very wrong. The air around them was fizzing with something like a mixture of fear, anger, and something else. Renji froze and put his hand out to stop Rukia as they approached the final turn.

"What do you see? Is it Ichigo?" Rukia tried to squeeze past Renji, but he held firm.

"I...it's definitely not Ichigo. I think it's Ogichi. But something is very, very wrong." His response came in a whisper. "He's not moving."

**Thanks soooooo much for reading! That is if you actually read all of it… Anyway, I am really low on reviews, so if you have anything you'd like to say, please do! Criticism is encouraged!**

**The next chapter will focus on whomever you want, so review and ask for any character! Lets get some reviews!**


	11. Chapter 10

Rukia and Renji ran back to alert their fellow search party members of Ichigo. Soon the group all turned the corner and found the hollow Ichigo lying on its back, staring off into the distance.

"What should we do, it's not moving, should we capture it?" Renji walked a few steps closer to the unmoving form.

"Don't go any closer, it could be a trap." Byakuya took some charge, pulling his lieutenant back. "I will use a kido spell on him."

With that, Byakuya motioned everyone to stand back as he fired a high-powered kido at Ichigo. Nothing happened, as the glowing red kido spell held the body down, it made no move to struggle.

"Well, if that's all the fight he's gonna give us, let's just pick him up and take him back." Ikkaku spoke up, impatient and irritated.

"Well, I suppose so, since he's not fighting or anything. Let's go." Captain Hitsugaya spoke, receiving nods from the other captains, and they all helped heft the large hollow up and began to carry him out.

'Che, king, ya knocked me back into this world. Pretty impressive, but now nobody's in control outside. You'll just appear dead.' The albino stood in front of a panting Ichigo. Zangetsu stood off to the side, quiet as usual.

"Why, can't I regain control? Tell me!" Ichigo shot up and grabbed his hollow's collar. Ogichi didn't make a move, only looked imploringly into Ichigo's eyes.

'Cause of that medicine.' Ogichi finally said. 'You really are stupid, aintcha king.'

Ichigo dropped his double and sank to his knees. His head bowed so his hair fell and covered his face, making it impossible to read what he was thinking. Zangetsu watched, a small flicker of concern on his face.

" You don't like the medicine either, do you?" A whisper, only loud enough to be heard by the hollow standing in front of him. An unreadable expression flickered over Ogichi's face, only to be replaced by the usual sneer.

'Nobody likes medicine, why would I?' The Hollow responded, looking down at Ichigo. 'Just get up and fight me would ya?'

"Gladly." Ichigo's voice changed, rose in pitch and dripped with malice. He looked up with an almost scary expression draped over his face, malice.

_ :}

The group had nearly made it to the Gates, still lugging the limp body of Ichigo. As they approached the large doors, (now somehow on the ground), they noticed a figure standing there, and as they got closer, they realized it was the same guy as before!

"Hey, isn't that Kanzin? The bastard-" Kenpachi started forward, unsheathing his sword and preparing to fight, when he was blown back by an unseen force, he busted through a few red columns before landing a good distance away. He did not stand back up.

The other shinigami took up defensive stances, lowering Ichigo to the ground so they could defend him. Less than a second passed, they all stared at Kanzin and suddenly, he was holding Ichigo. They all turned quickly to look where they had set his odd only moments ago, and it was gone.

"How did you-!" Captain Hitsugaya yelled, but the laughing man in front of them cut him off.

"Heheh, you think that was fast, you are all amateurs! I think I'll give you another little demonstration, like what I did with the spiky haired man over there." He pointed and the group turned to look where Kenpachi was slowly rising to his feet. When they turned back, Kanzin was gone, along with Ichigo.

"Hahahaa! Which one should I hurt next? Ichigo, why don't we have you decide." Kanzin was standing on a pillar not too far away, and Ichigo was standing next to him.

**Finally updated! How do you like this now? Review review review and I'll update faster :D**


	12. Chapter 11

A few minutes before...

Ichigo stood over the wounded body of his inner hollow, pressing his foot against the beings throat. Ogichi struggled weakly, but could not muster the strength to push Ichigo's foot off of his throat. He coughed up blood, a deep gash across his chest oozed blood with each heartbeat. The blood then floated into the dim water around them. Zangetsu floated off to the side, his ace hidden by the shadows of his cloak.

"Ha, I've beaten you, now give me back control! Damn hollow! I'll kill you if you resist!" Ichigo yelled into the hollows face, twisting on his heel and grinding his foot into his neck even harder.

"Che...king...jus lemme hanel em. I goddem..." Ogichi mumbled, his words barely making it out of his mouth.

"No! All you ever do is mess things up! You hurt my friends! Now stay out, get away from me if you want to continue your pathetic existence!" Ichigo removed his foot from the hollows neck; Ogichi stumbled and made his way over to Zangetsu. He grabbed the flowing black robes and pulled himself up into a sitting position, and then he turned back to Ichigo.

"I will...always be here. Don't ever...forget...me. King." And then he disappeared into the sword's cloak.

"Ichigo, listen to me, you are not acting like yourself. I implore you to sit and meditate for a while, time moves faster in here than outside, so in here hours can pass while only a few minutes will go by in the real world." The calm voice from his sword and mentor caused Ichigo to look up.

"Why should I, I feel great! I don't know what you're talking about." Ichigo did not meet Zangetsu's eyes as he stared with a blank expression into the distance, then he allowed himself to leave his inner world, and regain control outside.

Present...

The rescue group stared up as Ichigo's body stood up, undergoing a change as it did so. The white skin fell off in flakes, disappearing as they hit the floor; his shinigami robes re-wove themselves until they were once again covering his body. The mask fell away last, leaving the human Ichigo standing before them.

His face was expressionless as he took in the scene around him. Noting Kenpachi struggling to rejoin the group, and Rukia staring up at him with a hopeful yet dismayed face.

"Ichigo, why don't we have you decide." Kanzin finished, looking over at the emotionless boy.

Ichigo's hand rose, his fingers pointing down at the group, his index finger extended towards Rukia.

"No! You can't do anything to her, we only came to rescue you, Ichigo, snap out of it!" Renji jumped in front of Rukia, yelling desperately at his friend. He jumped just in time to be hit by the force of an invisible blow. He was shoved back into the group, toppling over Rukia and Ikkaku who were behind him, and they all slid for a few feet.

Byakuya walked over to check that Rukia was not hurt, he watched with a calculating expression as she extracted herself from the unconscious redhead, along with Ikkaku.

"No! ICHIGOOOO!" Rukia screamed.

"Nice, we got three in a row! Good choice Ichigo." Kanzin spoke to Ichigo like one would to a little sibling. "Let us go to my home, the medicine will kick in fully soon, and you will not want to be around these people when that happens."

Ichigo nodded, turning and flash-stepping after Kanzin. His eyes were rimmed with purple and red, slowly growing more distinct, his regular brown eye color barely noticeable beneath the swirling mess caused by the medicine.

They traveled for a while, before coming to a large pillar, towering above the rest, and entered a cave in the side. The cave opened into a large cavern, furnished with a throne and a few smaller chairs. Kanzin walked up to the throne and took a seat, motioning for Ichigo to sit in one of the other chairs.

"Don't worry, the medicines effect will be completing its course through your body soon now, then you will be completely under my command, and even more powerful than before!" Kanzin motioned and a small hollow came out of a little side passage carrying a tray of fruits. Kanzin ate a few of them, before giving the rest to Ichigo. "I'm sure your hungry."

Ichigo took the fruit, but did not eat any of it; he just stared at it, deep in thought.

The white fuzz enveloped him. It covered him with warmth and comfort, made him never want to leave. He embraced it, curling up in this blissful state. He couldn't remember how he got there, or where there was. All he could think about was the wonderful euphoria he was feeling at that moment.

Then he felt a tugging, at the back of his mind, a little piece of un-comfort, like a hook, dragging him out of the sea. He turned away, trying to block out the sound, but he couldn't, so he listened. Then he realized it was his name.

Ichigo...

He swam towards it; his eyes were still closed, trying to hold on to the bliss.

Ichigo...Ichigo...

Then he peeled his eyes open, hearing the urgency in the voice.

Wake up, Ichigo...you need to wake up...

Then the air disappeared around him with a loud pop and he was falling, through stars and buildings and faces. Then it's as if he's surfaced from drowning, he bursts out of the blissful sleep and everything is rushing back to him, all at once.

The medicine, the rampage, his friends trying to save him, his hollow being defeated by something like him, and he looked around to find himself lying in front of his soul center.

Ichigo stood up, walking towards the circle of light, emanating power, but as he watched, it slowly began to turn a sickly purple and red. Swirling around it and blocking out the beautiful white light. Ichigo began to run, yelling for it to stop, he made it only a few steps before the pain hit him, he doubled over. He began stumbling towards his soul center, desperate to save it and himself from the medicine encircling it. Using the last of his strength, he fell forward and shot his hands out, shoving them deep into the center of the swirling mass. He felt a jolt of power, like he had been hit by lighting, but he couldn't stop now, regaining some strength, he pushed his hands in further, now the light covered up to his elbows. Zangetsu appeared then, standing behind Ichigo, placing his hands on Ichigo's shoulders and lending him his strength.

"Go, Ichigo, move only forward, never look back."

His arms were all the way into the light, and Ichigo was now being enveloped all the way too, zangetsu still stood behind him, whispering soft words of encouragement. And then he was all the way inside the light. He was blinded for a moment, stumbling forward as the resistance stopped. When he regained his balance, he looked around.

The floor was white, and no walls or ceiling could be seen, only a pretty white surrounded him.

"Hello? Where am I? I need to stop the medicine from consuming me!" Ichigo called out, receiving only a faded echo in response.

Then a figure appeared, slowly forming out of the mist. It looked like a walking shadow as it neared, only to reveal a perfect copy of Ichigo. Down to everything, they were identical.

"Who- Who are you? And why do you look exactly like me?" Ichigo took a step back as his doppelganger approached.

"I am you. As you are me." Its voice was the same as Ichigo's too. It took a step forward, appearing in front of Ichigo, it reached out and placed its fingers on Ichigo's forehead.

"What do you think your doing?" Ichigo tried to take a step back again, but found he could no longer move. All he could do was stare at the copy in front of him.

"I am your true inner power, a power that can only be unlocked when you are ready. I believe you are ready, Ichigo." The figure moved his hand back, forming his fingers together into a point, and then he slammed his hand into Ichigo's head. Ichigo screamed as the pointed fingers delved into his brain. For some reason he could not fall unconscious, he could not move, he could only bear the pain.

The look-a-like pulled out his hand, receiving another agonizing scream from Ichigo. "It is done, now you must use these powers as you see fit. Meet your full potential now Ichigo."

The wound was gone, and Ichigo was rushed into his inner world, which was now back to normal (if sideways buildings were considered normal) and Zangetsu was standing on his pole as if nothing had happened.

"Zangetsu! What's happening outside? Quickly, we must stop the medicine from spreading!" Ichigo ran up to the man.

"Ichigo, now that you have received your true powers, you will no longer need me, I am too weak to be of any use to you now." Zangetsu spoke softly, watching with little expression as Ichigo's face went from confusion, to dismay.

"But-"

"No, you must go and save yourself now, I will still be here when it is over. Now go!"

Ichigo turned, with one last glance at Zangetsu, and left his inner world.

**R&R Hope you enjoyed! Please review with any questions you have!**


	13. Chapter 12

Kanzin sat on his throne, relieved that all had gone well in his master plan of escaping Hell. The hollows in his army should be giving the small group of shinigami a hard time. At least enough time for the medicine in Ichigo to take full effect. He glanced down at the teen, still staring at his bowl of fruit. It should be complete any moment now, Kanzin though, glancing at a clock hanging from the wall.

A clattering sound signaled the dropping of the fruit bowl, grapes and apples rolled all over the floor. Ichigo stood up and walked towards Kanzin. Kanzin stood up with a look of surprise.

"What is this?"

"I have conquered the bindings on my soul, I have found my inner power." Ichigo's voice was calm, almost peaceful, but his eyes showed blinding determination.

"No. Impossible! That medicine should have pushed your soul apart, leaving only the obeying side behind. And your hollow should have been greatly weakened too!" Kanzin took a step forward, unsheathing his sword and pointing it in Ichigo's face. "I will not have this! Obey me now!"

"No." With that Ichigo unleashed his newfound abilities, filling the room with blinding reiatsu. It swirled around him, then took form and swooped in on Kanzin, throwing him into the wall behind him and out the back of the column. He plunged down to the ground hundreds of feet below.

Ichigo jumped out of the hole he had created and flew down after his enemy, catching up to the falling man quickly. With a flick of his wrist, he sliced Kanzin down the side, nearly severing him in half. Bloody chunks spilled out from the new gash in his side, and he screamed as they finally hit the ground. Ichigo landed nicely, while Kanzin gouged a huge crater into the earth. Blood from his wound rained down a moment later, leaving their dark red marks all over Ichigo's shihakushô.

"You will be forever doomed to Hell!" Ichigo pointed his sword at the wheezing form of Kanzin trying to stand up and fired a bolt similar to a kido and a cero that wrapped Kanzin in glowing black chains, binding him to the floor. Only his head was left unchained. "You will be able to see and hear and feel, but nobody can release you from your misery. That is all."

"No! Wait! You can't leave me here!" Kanzin yelled at Ichigo, but Ichigo was already walking away, his back turned on his old enemy. "Noooooooooo!"

Ichigo found his friends fighting off a horde of hundreds of hollows threatening to overwhelm them, which a flick of his sword, he cut them all in half. Rukia was the first to move, she ran towards him and leaped into his arms, hugging him with all her strength. Byakuya and Hitsugaya walked up and greeted him, closely followed by the rest of the gang, except for Renji and Kenpachi, who were recovering on the ground.

"Ichigo, you fool! You could have gotten killed! Why did you make us all go through that?" Rukia began pounding Ichigo with her fists.

"It was not by my choosing that this happened." Ichigo replied, his voice still calm as ever. Rukia stopped punching him and stared at his face in confusion.

"Is there something up with you? You seem different." The others nodded in agreement with the girl's statement.

"I will explain when we get out of here, we have to get Kenpachi and Renji to safety first." So they all put off their questions for later and gathered up the wounded and shunpo'ed for the exit.

The gates opened as they neared them, allowing for a safe exit, they all passed through with no problems and Byakuya led them, creating a white reiatsu path for them to follow to the world of the living. The gates closed behind them with an eerie screeching noise.

"That was almost too easy." Hitsugaya commented as they ran towards the real world.

"Yeah, so Ichigo, that was awesome when you killed all those hollows in one- huh? Ichigo? Where's Ichigo?" Ikkaku yelled, scanning their small path and looking behind them.

Ichigo was gone.

"Hey, guys I'm right here! Why can't you see me?" Ichigo waved his hands in his friends' faces, they didn't even blink. He was still following them down the path made of Byakuya's reiatsu, and had been since they exited Hell.

"Ichigo? Oh no! Not again, where is he now? I swear I saw him leave Hell with us! He was right behind me!" Rukia began to panic, she looked around frantically.

"He probably fell off the path, knowing him he's already halfway to Hueco Mundo or some fourth dimension we've never heard of!" Ikkaku piped up, also swinging his head around.

Byakuya remained silent, and continued to make the path; a growing square of light was approaching as they neared the exit into the world of the living. Hitsugaya and Ikkaku were too busy carrying Renji and Kenpachi to look around.

"Hey! Rukia! Byakuya! Hitsugaya! I'm right here!" Ichigo was now shouting, trying and failing to get everyone's attention. He tried to flare his spiritual pressure, but nothing happened. Then he tried to touch them, he grabbed Rukia's shoulders.

"Aaaahh! Something's got me! Get it off! Get it off!" Rukia nearly screamed from the unexpected grip digging into her shoulders. She quickly ducked out of it and ran up next to Byakuya. Then they all exited the senkaimon, landing in the underground training area beneath Urahara's shop.

Hitsugaya and Ikkaku climbed up the ladder with Renji and Kenpachi in tow to alert Kisuke they had returned and to get the wounded some medical help. Kisuke immediately set up two rooms for the captain and lieutenant to heal in. By then everyone else had gathered in the usual meeting room to drink some tea and tell what had happened.

Everyone sipped his or her tea nervously, not wanting to reveal the quite obvious news. They had failed. Somewhere in between Hell and the world of the living, Ichigo had disappeared. Again.

**I was just so inspired tonight by your reviews that I just had to post another chapter right away! I'm also thinking of posting chapters a little more regularly than when I feel like it... I bet you guys will like that! So now, review and tell me what day of the week would you like me to post the new chapters on! Please review and I hope your enjoying!**


	14. Chapter 13

Ichigo stood in the room, watching as everyone discussed his disappearance. He had figured out that he could touch stuff, but nobody could hear him; or feel his reiatsu. He paced a little behind Rukia, who was currently explaining their case to Kisuke. Captain Hitsugaya and Byakuya had been ordered back to Soul Society to make their own reports, while she had been allowed to stay here and watch over the wounded.

"I have no idea what could have happened to him! The fool, he was there one moment and gone the next!" The raven haired girl waved her arms for emphasis.

"I see, did you notice anything unusual about him before hand? And did anything happen afterwards?" The intuitive shop owner asked Rukia.

"Well, he did seem to have acquired a new power or something, he was acting all weird, like he couldn't quite understand what was happening either. And afterwards, when we discovered he was gone, I felt hands grip my shoulders and I freaked out until they let go." Rukia finished, looking up to see if her explanation had helped Kisuke in any way. What she saw was quite surprising, the quirky shopkeeper had a big wide grin on his face.

"I do believe that our mystery is solved, Miss Rukia you have helped me greatly. Now, Ichigo all you have to do is try and suppress your reiatsu, then you should become visible again." Urahara stood up and held his fan over his face, his voice sounded as though a child had just solved the world's largest mystery.

Ichigo was surprised when he heard his name called; he stopped pacing and looked over at the shopkeeper. Then he tried to suppress his reiatsu, using all of his concentration and the advice he had gotten from Ganju, he managed to reel in the massive ball of energy that he found was surrounding him. The result was amazing.

Rukia turned from her seat as she saw Ichigo flicker into sight, and then he was whole again, although he could barely concentrate on anything other than holding in his power at the moment. Every once in a while he would flicker like a hologram. But he was still there.

"Ichigo, you have improved on your control of your spiritual pressure immensely, but I see you still need some improvement." Kisuke spoke to the teen.

"Ichigo! You were with us the entire time!" Rukia ran over to Ichigo, overjoyed that her favorite substitute soul reaper was back. Then her face turned serious as another thought occurred, "We have to tell Captain Hitsugaya and Captain Kuchiki about this so they do not alarm the soul society!"

"Yes, I believe your right; I will open up a senkaimon right away! Meanwhile, would you be a dear and check on the wounded?" Kisuke said to Rukia, and she went back to the other rooms.

Ichigo was still concentrating as hard as he could on holding in his reiatsu, he couldn't even speak or move because of his intense concentration, although he felt with every moment it was a little bit easier as he got the hang of it. For now though, he would either have to be invisible or not move. Kisuke went into the underground training area and began to set up the senkaimon with the help of Tessai. Rukia sat next to Renji, holding his hand; they were stable now and resting peacefully. Kenpachi was stirring, he slowly sat up and looked around, muttering what a pain it was to have been unable to fight. Rukia looked up, but saw he was fine and she let him go to wander into the other room.

"Hey! Ichigo, so we did save you now...I thought you were dead, it's good to see you alive so I can fight you!" Kenpachi practically yelled at Ichigo in his moment of joy.

"I...can't fight...right...now...Kenpachi." Ichigo spoke through gritted teeth as he still could barely move, his form continued to flicker like a hologram.

"Humph, fine then, it seems you have something else to worry about, having trouble controlling your spiritual pressure, eh?" Kenpachi shoves his hand into the top part of his shihakushô and moves it about for a second, before bringing it out holding an odd shaped belt of some sorts. It's black and shiny, made of similar material as Kenpachi's eyepatch. "Here, take it, that should help."

He tosses the belt to Ichigo, and Ichigo disappears as he reaches out to grab it, it moves around in the air for a bit, and then Ichigo comes back into focus wearing the new belt and only having to concentrate a little bit now.

"Thanks Kenpachi! I owe you a fight, but we'll have to discuss that later, we have together to soul society." Ichigo walks over to the room where Rukia is and tells her that it's time to leave, they walk out and follow Kenpachi down the ladder and towards the humming white gate of the senkaimon. They find Kisuke standing next to it, adjusting an unknown contraption; he turns and walks towards them, holding his fan over his face per the usual.

"I see that you've had some help Ichigo. I would like you to stay behind for a moment after the others head to soul society." The strange shopkeeper motions for the others to go through the senkaimon, two hell butterflies come out and flutter around them, and, with only a few questioning glances they left. Ichigo stood looking puzzled as the senkaimon closed after them.

"What's up hat n clogs? Why am I not going with them?"

"You can still go with them if you choose to."

"Huh? I need an explanation! Stop talking in circles!" Ichigo began to get agitated, his usual scowl deepening.

"Well, here we go..."

**Here we go! Updates on time this week! I hope you liked it, a little sneak peek at next week's chapter: Kisuke tells a long story, possible new power appearance...**

**If you'd like me to make it a longer chapter then review review and review...then after you've reviewed, review some more! :P**


	15. Chapter 14

Hey guys, I am so glad for the recent reviews that I have been getting! I'm sorry that I haven't updated recently, I got stuck on what to do next...so mostly this chapter is kind of a filler while I create a new conflict...

"Ichigo, this is a story that has been passed down for many generations in the soul society. It tells about a man long ago, who was very similar to you. The legend has it that this man had an awesome power given to him by the Soul King himself. But this man was corrupted and he abused his powers. So the Soul King banished him to the depths of Hell where he has been ever since. Or so the legend says, there isn't any actual proof of his existence." Kisuke finished, sipping from his cup of tea that Jinta and Ururu had brought him.

"So your saying that I have been given the power of the Soul King?" Ichigo stared at the shopkeeper, somewhat shocked by this news.

"Or something like that, I really have no idea what that could entail though. I was wondering if you would test out your powers for me?"

"Oh, okay. Sure." Ichigo stood up and walked a little ways away, then he pulled out his sword and, facing a nearby rock mound, let loose a powerful Getsuga Tensho. And nothing happened, well, nothing unusual happened. It was just a normal blue and white Getsuga Tensho.

"Is there something wrong Ichigo, that isn't a new power is it." Kisuke strode over to the orange haired shinigami.

"No, that just felt like a normal Getsuga Tensho. I put all my power into it." Ichigo turned towards the shopkeeper. "Did I do something wrong? Maybe I need to go into Bankai?"

"No, I believe that your power will surface soon, and we will all know it when it happens. But for now, I think it best if we follow your friends into the soul society." Kisuke motioned for Ichigo to follow him as the senkaimon opened and let them pass through.

Ichigo stepped into the portal right after Kisuke, with only one glance back as the Human World faded away.

They arrived at the soul society and quickly caught up with their group on the way to the captains meeting. This one time they were going to be allowed in the meeting, but only because of the unusual case.

Toshiro took his usual position in the two lines of captains, while the rest of the group, Ichigo, Kisuke, Orihime, Rangiku, Ikkaku, Uryuu, Chad and the others all stood in an awkward group facing the head captain.

"This meeting will now come to order." The head captain banged his staff on the ground and the light chatter ceased. "We have been informed that there is a possible threat in the depths of hell that has nothing to do with Aizen or Hueco Mundo. Please give your report Captain Hitsugaya."

Captain Hitsugaya stepped forward and began yet another detailed explanation of the past events. By the time he was done, nearly all the captains had concerned looks on their faces. Hitsugaya stepped back and motioned for Ichigo to explain what had happened with Kanzin and how he had escaped.

Ichigo told the story in great detail, only omitting the parts that happened inside his spirit world. The Captains were relieved when he told them how he had slain Kanzin in the end with a newfound power, but they were also intrigued that he had gotten such a power in the depths of hell.

After much discussion, to which the conclusion was undecided, they decided to adjourn for the day. The captains left with no worries about imminent threats, only some confusion and curiosity about Ichigo's powers.

Ichigo and his friends, along with Captain Hitsugaya and his group, left for the Living World. Where they all slept peacefully for once in their own homes (and Kisuke's shop).

Well that wraps up another chapter! Hope you enjoyed and I will be updating more often now I hope...anywhoo, please review rview review! Also, if you like Doctor Who and would like me to write a story about it, tell me in a review!


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